Serendipity
by PKbodyrockin
Summary: Is it worth it to plant a garden in my heart? Summer camp AU, Nesscas, Clausten.
1. Chapter 1

"Boys get your things ready, we'll be there soon". I looked out the window at what could only be described as hell.

Summer camp.

Hi. My name's Lucas. 15 years old, born and raised in Tazmily. I live with my loving parents, Flint and Hinawa, my exuberant brother, Claus, and my loyal dog boney. Unfortunately this summer, the only one I'll be seeing is Claus.

Now don't get me wrong, I like summer and I like camping, but summer camp? I don't think so.

You see, I've been to summer camp before. But never for the whole summer. At most it would be a few days and then I would spend the rest of the holiday relaxing and sleeping in, not a care in the world. I know Claus may get bored easily by a relaxing summer at home, but I'm one who prefers the quiet indoors.

But I had to go anyway. Up into the mountains in the middle of nowhere for 2 months and let me tell you _I was not happy about it_.

"Ok, we're here" I looked out at a dirt covered parking lot full of other cars with families hauling out luggage and sleeping bags. I opened my door and got out of the car, my legs thankful for the stretch from the agony of sitting for four hours. As I got out the heat hit me like a slap in the face and I had half a mind to rush back into the car, but Claus' voice stopped me, telling me to hurry up and grab my things.

I didn't have much that I brought with me. Some clothes, sundries, a few video games (well, just a gameboy advance), a pillow, sleeping bag, you know, the usual stuff. My dad had already grabbed some of our things from the trunk and began walking towards the front of the camp. I couldn't carry as much as him but I got the rest of my luggage; a pillow and a rolling suitcase, and went over to Claus who looked about ready to go have the time of his life.

"You sure are excited about this camp, huh" I asked him. He turned to me, eyes full of wonder but a face that tried to cover his excitement "I guess so. Someone told me we get to wrestle bears. I bet you're looking forward to camp bonding around the fire or something else lame" he snickered.

"You seem to be forgetting that I'm not actually good with people, Claus." I said bluntly "Also, you don't wrestle bears in summer camp. I would say that's a myth but I don't even know where you heard that."

Claus frowned and turned away.

"I'm gonna head inside and look around before the assembly starts." He declared. "At least try and make some friends while we're here ok? I know summer camp was the last thing you wanted to do this year but you might as well make the best of it." He shrugged, "You might also want to help out mom with the luggage" Claus looked behind me and I turned to see mom struggling with the rest of the stuff in the car. When I turned back to him, Claus had taken off and was already almost at the entrance.

"Come on man! At least take some of your stuff!" I shouted. He turned and winked at me before running out of view. I sighed and walked back towards the car.

"I got it mom" I told her and took some of Claus' things with the rest of my own. "Thanks dear" she replied emptying the trunk, "Lucas, I know I've said this before but you really should try and make some friends." She smiled "I'm sure that no matter how upset you are now, if you try a little bit you'll have fun." I sighed. Why was everyone so hell bent on me making friends?Truth be told I had just planned to bear through this trial with Claus alone. I sighed again and started walking towards the entrance "I guess so".

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry if the writing's bad, I'm more of an artist than a writer.


	2. snake eyes

When we made it inside of the camp, luggage in tote, I saw a small lake in the distance along with a large stage to its left where people seemed to be gathering for opening ceremonies. I stopped for a minute to see if Claus was there but my mom pushed me forward slightly. "Don't space out honey, we have to get you registered" she smiled. I continued to walk, but with less interest, thinking that maybe if I walked slow enough I would be able to escape this place with my sanity in tact.

However as I continued to dramatically walk in slow motion I got a few stares and, thanks to my shy nature, ceased to continue out of pure embarrassment. Oh well. These things happen.

As my mother went on ahead, I made my way closer to the stage, calling to her to meet me there when she was done.

I walked along the dirt path and began to look at other campers and their families. Some were lost, others exploring, some arguing, and many simply waiting. I wasn't surprised; the opening ceremony didn't start for a while anyways.

As I made my way closer to the stage, I saw an empty bench and took an opportunity to rest my legs. I know I was in the car for four hours, but the bench was beckoning me to sit down, and honestly, who was I to deny it?

I put my luggage next to me as I sat and got out my MP3 player. I put my headphones in, music still playing from the car trip, and closed my eyes. Maybe when I opened them this would all turn out to be a bad dream.

"Hey kid". I looked up. "Sorry, but electronics aren't allowed at camp" standing in front of me was a man, no older than 25, wearing a blue shirt and a yellow bandanna as well as bright pink pants. "Sorry" I said, taking out my headphones, "I didn't realize..." I trailed off. He sat down at the end of the bench, a relaxed aura around him "It's fine. I don't care, myself. I'm just telling you so you'll be careful not to get it taken away by someone who does". He smiled, extending his hand "I'm camp counselor Duster. Nice to meet you..." "Lucas" I said, shaking his hand. He seemed like a nice guy. Not too intrusive. Slightly bad breath, though.

"If you need anything feel free to come talk to me or any of the other counselors, Lucas" he said getting up. "The ceremony's going to start soon. You might want to start making your way down." And with that, he was gone.

I put my mp3 in the pocket of my suitcase as I stood up and stretched. I knelt down to grab my things when I heard my mom call "Lucas! Lucas where are you?" "Over here, mom!"I waved. She walked up to me "Ready to go? Your father's with Claus and they're already at the stage" I nodded and we made our way towards the ceremonies.

The crowd near the stage was overwhelming and mom and I decided to try not to get close to the front, instead choosing to stand to the side. I looked around, trying to find Claus who was at the very front of the stage with dad. I realized I should probably keep an eye on him since we needed to find our cabin after this.

"Lucas, honey," my mom said with a nervous voice "sweetie, don't get mad but... we weren't able to get you in the same cabin as your brother." My eyes widened and I looked up at her in horror. Who was I going to share it with? What if they're a crazy psycho who wants to kill me?! What if I have to make awkward conversation?! All these thoughts swirled around in my head and I started to sweat. "B-but.." I stuttered "but you said—" "I know" she replied apologetically. "But these things happen and we have to learn how to manage them. It's all part of growing up. Plus it might be a good opportunity for you to make a new friend! Try to look on the bright side." She patted my shoulder. "Plus, it's not like Claus is going to be gone altogether. You can still see him every day." I felt nauseous, but admittedly calmer. How did mom always know what to say? Suddenly, a booming voice came from the stage and everyone turned their attention to the speaker. "Hey there campers and camper's families! Welcome to sunset summer camp! We'll be starting off today with a few directions on how things work around here at camp and some if the activities we'll be doing today." The speakers overly happy tone was enough to make me cringe, so I used my amazing ability, earned after years of living with Claus, to block annoying sounds out and ignored him.

I looked around the bustling crowd, wondering who in this godforsaken place I would be rooming with. Obviously it would be a boy, even if this wasn't an all boys camp they would still have separated cabins, but I just hoped that the guy I would be rooming with would at least be friendly. And maybe calm. I didn't know if I would be able to handle someone with too much energy.

As my eyes wandered through the crowd, one of the boys in the middle particularly caught my eye. He was wearing a striped shirt, similar to mine and a red baseball cap. He was messing around with some other kids and, even though I was far away, I could see that he was practically radiating confidence and cheer. The only thing I could think when I saw him was, _that kid better not be my god damned room mate._

* * *

**A/N: **All I ate today was potato chips. I'm not even fucking kidding that's all I ate


	3. the lucky number

As the opening ceremonies finished up, mom and I met up with Claus and dad in search of our new cabins. Claus and I walked side by side behind our parents, looking around the camp. It was a nice place, green grass, the smell of the mountain, you know, nature-y. That's when Claus spoke up "Sucks that we don't get to share a cabin, huh". I nodded in response and turned my eyes towards the ground "I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle staying in a cabin with some random person. I'm sure _you'll_ be fine though". Claus snickered, "Yeah, I don't really mind who I'm stuck with. I'm only gonna be in there when I have to be. You on the other hand..." He smiled. I gave him an unamused punch on the arm "Don't rub it in you uncharismatic ginger"

We continued walking until I heard dad announce that they found Claus' cabin. I saw my brother turn and rush inside, _probably to get the top bunk_ I thought, but as I entered I saw that there were, surprisingly, 2 separate regular beds. As well as a table, an accompanying chair, 2 separate cabinets, and a door which I assumed led to a bathroom. _Living in the lap of luxury, _I thought sarcastically.

Claus began to get settled in and put his things on one of the beds when I heard mom, "Lucas, I know you want to stay with your brother but we still have to find your cabin, now." I nodded "ok" and we walked out in search of where I would be staying.

As we left, I turned around to say what felt like a final goodbye but I saw another kid enter Claus' cabin before I could get the words out. _Is that...?_ I could've sworn it was the kid from earlier but upon second look it was clear he wasn't. They looked a lot alike _maybe siblings?_ I thought as I walked away, _cool bandana, though_.

I jogged down and continued walking with mom until we were almost at the bottom of the hill. She stopped and looked around until her eyes settled on one of the cabins "That's it" she said, walking towards it. I turned towards the lodging house. The cabin, affectionately named "Cabin 28" stared me dead in the face like the final boss of a game I could never win.

We walked inside the one room house; it had the same layout as Claus' cabin, 2 beds, a bathroom, same thing. But it didn't really strike me until mom asked which bed I wanted that I would be _living_ here... for the whole summer. I had been spouting about how much I didn't want do summer camp this year, but it didn't really dawn on me until now that I would be staying for an entire summer. That's like 3 _whole_ months. Containing the panic attack that would no doubt happen at some point, I chose the bed on the left side of the cabin, up against the front wall. I put my things down and mom looked around the room, probably making sure it was up to her standards. "I wonder who your new roommate is" she said, sitting down on my bed "I hope you two get along" she smiled, "Oh you might even become best friends". _Oh god mom's getting sentimental_ "Lucas I just want you to know that even though you'll make friends here I don't want you to forget about your family. You can send us mail anytime, ok? I want you to write home at least once a week." "Ok mom" I sighed. _I love my mom but I'm not gonna forget about her and dad if I'm away for 3 months_.

"Hello?" Someone said, peering in the doorway. I looked over to see a tall blonde woman, seemingly around the same age as my mom enter the cabin with a few bags in her arms. Mom sat up, turning towards the woman, "Hello there!" The lady readjusted the bags in her arms and smiled at my mom "this wouldn't happen to be cabin 28 would it?" She asked, looking a bit overwhelmed. "As a matter of fact it is", my mom said, "feel free to put your things down, we just got here too". The woman sighed in relief, "thank god, it feels like we've been searching for decades. My name is Trisha" she extended a hand towards my mom, "Hinawa." Mom said, shaking her hand. "It's nice to meet you." Trisha looked at me, "You must be staying here too, nice to meet you..." She trailed off, "Lucas. Nice to meet you too." _she seems friendly_ I thought, however it occurred to me that she was alone. Surely she has a son, most likely my roommate for the summer... _where is he?_ I quickly scanned the room to make sure he hadn't entered unannounced, but seeing as he was nowhere in the facility I raised my eyebrows in confusion. Trisha took notice "You must be wondering where your roommate is. Last I checked he was on the phone with his father but he should be here any minute." _If he is anything like his mom he shouldn't be so bad_ I thought, trying to stay optimistic. I really had no idea what lay ahead of me.

"Mom?"

I turned towards the sound to see a figure standing in the doorway, around the same height as me and— oh god. Oh no. No.

Standing at the front of the cabin was the boy in the striped shirt and red cap.

* * *

**A/N:** We had AP testing the other day for US history and I ended my essay on communism with "In the words of Ronald Reagan, 'damn you, Sputnik' ", I think it's going to go down as the greatest essay in the history of the fucking world.


	4. quatro

"Hey there!" I heard my mom say to the boy in the doorway. I watched him as he walked inside.  
"Ness, there you are!" his mom said "what did your dad say?"  
"He told me to have fun at camp and that he put 30 dollars into my account for now" the black-haired boy said, adjusting his cap. _Dang, 30 bucks? Living in the lap of luxury no doubt_.

"Ness, introduce yourself to your new cabin mate. You two will be staying together for the summer" the boy walked to me, "hi", he said, extending a hand, "my name is Ness, nice to meet you." I took his hand and shook it with all of the enthusiasm of a dead fish "Lucas. You too."  
Now that I got to see him up close, he looked the same age as me, black hair, violet eyes... weird, slightly tanned skin, not much taller than me but a little more... I don't know, sporty looking?  
We stood there in somewhat of an awkward silence before my mom decided to speak up, "Ok boys, well, now that you've met, I'm sure we can trust you to finish unpacking. Parents have to leave soon so I'm going to go get your father, Lucas, and you can come now or you and Claus can meet us at the entrance to say goodbye later."  
"I'm gonna have to shove off too, Ness" Trisha said "I still need to drive your sister to Sunrise camp, so I can't stay to help you unpack."  
Ness and I both nodded at our respective parents as they finished, Ness went over to hug his mom goodbye and I followed mine out to go meet with Claus and Dad.

Ness. Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness. The boy's name is Ness. I sighed. What the hell was I going to do? There was no way I could get along with that guy. I mean, I know we'd only exchanged like 4 words and my first impression of him was from a distance, but I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character, and this was one I really didn't want to be around.  
"Just try and get along."  
Huh? I looked towards my mom, both of us walking up the hill, "I know you don't like him, but just try to get along". I gazed at my feet, "You could tell, huh."  
"I saw that handshake, it was like watching an unenthusiastic train wreck." She chuckled.

"But I don't like him. I was unenthusiastic for a reason, you know."

"You only just met him, how can you say you don't like him?" She paused, "I think he seems nice."

"Mom, you think everyone seems nice."

"You got me." Mom snapped her fingers in fake defeat, "but if you at least try to be nice, you'll have a better time. You can hang out with Claus all you want, but bonding and making new friends is what camp is all about. I think you'll enjoy it more too."  
I grumbled as we walked up to Claus' cabin, mom knocking on the doorframe despite the door already being wide open.  
"Hello?" Mom called. Claus popped his head into view, followed by a shorter boy with a red cap and bandana.  
"Hey mom, hey Lucas, come in" Claus said, waving us inside.  
Walking in, the boy in the bandana smiled at me. He had jet black hair, a red cap, red socks, a striped shirt, and dark circles under his eyes that convinced me that he hasn't slept in at least 4 days.  
Claus walked over to him and gestured to the boy, "Mom, Lucas, this is my friend, Ninten." _Friend is probably a strong word,_ I thought. "Ninten, this is my mom Hinawa, and my brother Lucas."  
Ninten waved respectably, "nice to meet you"  
"Nice to meet you too" mom and I both said in unison, her tone distinctly more cheerful than mine.  
"I'm so glad you two are friends already! I hope Claus doesn't cause you too much trouble." She said jokingly, "Speaking of which, Claus, where's your father?"  
"I think he's already at the entrance. Either that or the registration office."  
"Well we should go to the entrance, he'll end up going there either way." She turned to Ninten "it was very nice meeting you, Ninten, I hope you and Claus get along well."  
"Thanks", he nodded and we went on our way.

We met dad at the entrance, we said our tearful goodbyes, and then it was over. My parents were gone and I was stuck in a camp with 100 other boys for the next 2 months.

I was not going to survive.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ I'm gonna be in Europe for my mom's 50th birthday for a while so updates will be... decreased. Well it's not like I'm updating much anyways haha, sorry. Anyways, on a slightly happier note, I've noticed a small influx in well written fics for this pairing, mine not included heh. It's a very nice development. I've been browsing on here for quite a while and let me tell you it's been a long time coming.


	5. The fifth one

By the time parents left it was already late afternoon. I reached into my pocket and took out a schedule from the main office which read:

8:30: wake up call

9:30: breakfast

10:15: Activity time

1:25: lunch

2:30: Free time

4:30: Activity time

7:00: dinner

8:00: all camp assembly

9:00: Free time/ Night activity

10:00: All campers required to be in cabins by this time

11:00: lights out

\- All campers are required to be punctual to events and assemblies, if you have any questions feel free to ask a counselor.

It was a straightforward schedule at least, which was all I could really ask for. I figured I'd learn what "activity time" was later, so I shoved the note back in my pocket and started walking back to my cabin to unpack.

I was stopped in my tracks by a screeching sound that came from the speakers overhead followed by a muffled voice like the one you hear right when you get on a roller coaster, "Attention all campers, you are required to meet at the event center behind the cabins at 5:00 today. Maps are located around camp if you get lost". That gave me about an hour and a half before I had to go anywhere, so I figured I would chill with Claus until it was time.

I actually caught sight of Claus walking down and jogged to catch up with him, "once I'm done unpacking can I come hang out with you?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure, I don't see why not"

Satisfied with that answer, I walked past him to my cabin, intent on unpacking as fast as possible to avoid spending unnecessary time with anyone that wasn't my brother.

Ness must've been somewhere else because the cabin was empty when I walked inside. I let out a sigh of relief and decided to use the time to myself to explore my new living situation. It was a simple one room square cabin. One bed on the left against the front wall, the other, perpendicular against the right side of the front wall, the door leading outside between them. Next to each bed on either wall was a fairly large dresser and near the back was a small table and chair. I made my way to the bathroom next to it, finding a normal shower and toilet with a sink in between them.

I walked back to my bed on the right, took out my heaping pile of clothes, and shoved them in the dresser next to the wall. The dresser didn't close all the way with the clothes inside but whatever. I kicked my suitcase under the bed and unfurled my sleeping bag and pillow onto the mattress. I noticed something then.

It was quiet.

Somewhat ominously quiet but... it was nice. If this place had a TV I didn't have a roommate I probably would've loved it. A quiet, well lit box of solitude with ballpoint pen names carved into the wood and dust in every corner.

I sighed.

It would've been perfect.

I shook myself out of my daydreaming and left the dusty cabin. It was nice in there but not worth it to stay if it mean running into Ness.

And speak of the god damned devil.

Ness was walking down the hill when I left the cabin, so I did what any sane person would do and pretended that I didn't see him. I pointed my eyes to the ground and shut out the outside world as I walked up the hill. I guess that was sort of a stupid move though, because the direction I was walking in was the same one he was coming from. But I had made my bed, (metaphorically and literally) so I had to lay in it.

"Hey" he said. I jumped but I kept my eyes down, I was not actually expecting him to start up any kind of conversation.

"...hey"

"...Is the door unlocked?" He gestured to the cabin, "I was gonna go unpack."

"Yeah."

And with that, we went on our way.

~.~

After that... uncomfortable encounter, I reached Claus' cabin and knocked on the door. Claus opened it with a "yo" and gestured for me to go inside. When I went in I was greeted by Ninten who was making paper rings. The whole ceiling was actually covered by red paper chains and other crafted doohickeys. It gave the cabin a personality. I liked it a lot.

Claus noticed me looking around. He said, "We're just doing a bit of decorating for the place. Ninten's making them and I'm hanging them up".

"Where did you get the paper?" I asked.

"Ninten brought it. He's like, the origami master."

Ninten spoke up, "I can verify that I am, indeed, the origami master." He paused, "if it bugs you, though, you can take them down."

"I already said it's fine. It makes the place less boring." Claus said resolutely. I nodded in agreement.

"Ok..." Ninten smiled quietly. "Thanks."

Claus and Ninten went back to crafting after that so I figured I would take a nap in order to kill some time. I made my way over to Claus' bed, flopping down face first on it. I wasn't too comfortable having Ninten there, being someone I'd just met that day, but having my brother there softened the tense feelings I had. A stream of light entered through one of the small windows near the ceiling, the dust danced around it in delicate movements. I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep, my last memory being the two voices talking quietly behind me.

~.~

"Dude, wake up"

I groggily opened my eyes fully expecting to be in my own room at home and was pretty god damn disoriented when I wasn't. My senses came back to me suddenly and I realized that instead of home, I was in a dusty room hours away from there. All of my disappointed feelings pooled in my gut and I miserably shoved my face back into my drool covered pillow.

"Lucas, come on, we have to go."

I heard that voice again which unmistakably came from my brother. I groaned and shoved my face further into the mattress. "I don't wanna get up" I said, muffled but I guess Claus understood because the next thing he did was tip the bed over. I yelped and landed right on my hands and knees, which, I will tell you, hurt like hell and gave me at /least/ 5 million splinters.

"Dude. Lame." I said, looking as displeased as humanly possible.

"Yeah, well knowing your sleep pattern it was either this or ice water in your face and I didn't have any ice. Anyways, get up we have to go", Claus said.

"Ugh, why?" I droned.

"Because it's already 5:00 and we were supposed to be at some event thing by now."

My eyes widened "Oh shit, really?" I hate not being punctual, I get it from my mom. "Dude, why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"I /tried/ but you're such a god damn heavy sleeper that eventually I had to tell Ninten to go without me so he wouldn't be late."

I looked around and lo and behold, Ninten was nowhere to be found. "Huh. Well I guess we should go." I stood up from the floor and headed for the door before I was blocked by a serious looking Claus with his arms crossed.

He said "Normally, I would let you go out like this because it's absolutely hilarious, but I know how you are in new situations and I feel it is my brotherly duty to save you from that embarrassment."

I gave him a puzzled look.

"Dude, fix your hair".

I looked up thinking that I would be able to see my hair without a mirror, but it was a bit more impossible than I had first thought. I went into the bathroom and when I looked in the mirror, I had never been more grateful for Claus' mercy on my soul. You might think that my ultra stylish hair just happens naturally. But let me tell you gravity is a cruel and unforgiving mistress, and if I don't have all the proper tools I need to style my hair, what you pretty much get is a reverse mullet. It's awful, trust me. Claus doesn't style his hair. In fact, I don't even know what the hell even goes on with Claus' hair. It's like, it doesn't part anywhere, but then there's like a part that stands up and, well, it's confusing as hell. His hair is seriously a fucking mystery.

I looked at my bed head trying to think of how to fix this without hairspray or gel or... damn do they even have a comb in here? I opened a drawer in the cabinet beneath the mirror and what I saw was heavens gates opening in an array of holy light. I had everything I needed to style my hair. I wanted to cry it was so absolutely beautiful. _These must be Ninten's_ I thought, although it didn't make much sense as to why he would have so many hair products if he just covered his hair up with a hat. _He must not wear it all the time_, I figured. A quick "Come on, man, hurry up" from Claus stopped my dawdling and I quickly and precisely styled my hair into its usual shape.

"Ok, let's go." I said walking out of the bathroom.

Claus rolled his eyes "Jesus, finally."

We walked out together and towards the back of the cabins and the event center.

"Who's hair spray and stuff is that in the bathroom?" I asked quizzically.

"That's, I uh... that's uh, that's Ninten's. Yeah."

I paused. "Dude, are those **yours**?"

"No. Nope. Nah." Claus said, in the most defensive voice possible.

"Oh my god. All these years trying to figure out how the hell your hair worked and you /made/ it that way. Unbelievable."

He shoved me unenthusiastically, "Shut up."

I laughed "Dude also, you're like the worst liar ever."

He smirked "Only to you."

I was gonna make fun of him some more, but unfortunately we had already made it to the event center. I guess making fun of Claus would have to wait for another time.

There was no one outside the center which would've surprised me if it wasn't already 5:15, so me and Claus quietly made our way inside. What we saw when we went in was a stage with a rising floor of stairs opposite of it where all of the kids were sitting. I guess they hadn't started anything yet because it was loud as hell with all of them chatting away with each other. It also didn't look like there was a seating arrangement so Claus and I sat down on the very back step. We were given a curious look by some blonde freckled kid in glasses, sitting to my left. When I looked towards him I saw he was sitting next to another kid with black hair in a braid and next to that kid was... Ness. I turned my head away at the speed of light, accidentally slamming it into Claus'. "Ow, dude, what the fuck?" Claus hissed angrily.

"Sorry, sorry". I whispered back. Claus glared at me and I gestured with my eyes towards Ness. Claus looked at him, then back at me and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Dude, that's my roommate." I whispered, hurriedly.

Claus' eyes widened in realization. "Oh".

"Yeah"

Claus looked back over at him, "I don't know why you're so afraid of him. He looks like he just walked out of a ball pit at Chuck e. Cheese and all of the colors stuck to his clothes."

I snorted, but I wasn't gonna let that first part get by, "I'm not afraid of him, I just don't like him", I whispered indignantly.

"Why?"

"I just don't."

"You see, man, this is why I already have friends and you're stuck hanging out with me."

I made a displeased noise in the back of my throat and looked towards the stage where one of the counselors had begun speaking.

"Ok, campers! Who's ready to have fun?!"

What erupted from the audience was half groans and half fake enthusiasm which ended up with pretty much the wet napkin of cheers, aside from those few kids who were actually /excited/ and cheering near the front of the stage. God I hate those kids.

"Alright, well let's get started, the first thing we're going to do today is tell you a little about the camp, and then we're going to move outside to give you all groups who you'll be doing activities with for the rest of the summer."

I groaned. _Claus isn't going to be in my group I'm going to actually die. I am going to dissolve into the atmosphere and die_.

"Ok campers the first thing we need to set are the basic rules." The counselor on stage said, "If anyone forgets these, you can come to the main office. There's a rule book that you can use to refresh your memory."

I was getting really bored already and kind of zoned out of whatever the guy on stage was saying. I picked up small pieces like "No food in cabins" and "No going off camp grounds" which seemed sort of implied. My ears perked up at one rule, though. "There will be no cavorting with other campers, and failure to follow this rule will result in immediate expulsion from the camp." Expulsion seemed like kind of a weird word to use but that wasn't the main point. The ultimate meaning of the rule was "don't get with other campers or you're being sent home". I didn't really worry about it. I wasn't gonna do any "cavorting" with anyone. I might be gay but I'm not desperate enough to get with anyone in this god forsaken place. But the rule bugged me. I know the boy scouts have some sort of strict anti-gay agenda but I mean summer camp? You're putting 500 adolescent boys on the same grounds and you don't expect anything to happen? I guess they /did/ expect something to happen or else that rule probably wouldn't exist. I laughed to myself, _I bet someone's gonna get kicked out by the end of the summer_.

After the counselor finished his monologue of rules, of which I picked up about four, he stepped aside and another counselor took the mic. He started to talk about the history of the camp or something, I don't know, I wasn't paying attention, I was actually looking around for the counselor that talked to me when I first got here. I think Duster was his name? I spotted him leaning against the wall on the left completely knocked out but still standing. I muffled a laugh, I guess this whole thing was really boring for him too.

After about 5 millenniums the guy at the mic finished his speech and we were all told to move out to the field to get groups.

When we got there, all of the counselors were spread around the field holding up signs with different names.

It probably would've been a more productive system if the names weren't written so small that everyone had to crowd around each sign to find out where they were placed but what do I know?

Claus found his group and I walked to where he was to see if the gods had shown me their mercy and put me in the same one. I looked at the sign. Nope. Claus must've seen the disappointment on my face because he put his hand on my back and gave me a pitying look. I sighed and looked on.

Ninten must've seen me too (he and Claus were in the same group) and pointed me where I was supposed to go. I looked to my left where he pointed and saw Duster waving holding up a sign. I walked over to him and his group with a half-smile.

"Hey, glad you could join us." He said when I arrived. I looked at all the other guys in my group and froze when I saw Ness there. God dammit. God fucking dammit. I sighed and sat down on the damp grass with everyone else. When the last kid arrived duster started speaking.

"Ok, hey everyone, I'm your group leader, Duster. Pretty much what we're gonna be doing together is group activities every other day and stuff like overnight camping and competitive games every week. Feel free to talk to me about whatever you need or if you have any medical stuff I need to know about" he said. "Ok so were supposed to have a group name, most of the counselors already decided on one, but the one I picked doesn't seem like it's super cool", he smiled, "So I thought of a couple options for you guys to pick. Number one: the staples" everyone in the group shook their head. He continued, "Ok so not that one. Number 2: cheese platter." The group laughed but no one was willing to have that name except me and I didn't voice my opinion. "Ok, well I have one more that I hope you guys will say yes to. 'The thieves' ". Some quiet deliberation between group members ended with nods of agreement. "Ok so our group name is 'the thieves'. I'm trusting you all not to take that literally", he laughed. I smiled. I might not be with Claus, but I got the coolest counselor on campus and that counts for something.

After some more explanation of camp activities, we broke apart to go eat dinner at the mess hall. I found Claus talking to the two guys we were sitting next to in the event center. When I caught up to them, their conversation suddenly stopped and they all looked at me. Definitely not the most comfortable thing I've ever experienced. After a few seconds I decided to break the silence. "Uh.. hi." I am a poet and no one can tell me otherwise. "Hi" "Hello", the two of them replied. I raised my eyebrows at Claus, expecting him to introduce me to his friends. "Oh." He said, realizing what I was doing, "This is Jeff", gesturing to the blonde boy "and this is... Poo." He said gesturing to the boy with the black braided hair. Before I reprimand Claus for being such an ass to someone he just met and calling them poo both of the boys said "Nice to meet you". I guess... Poo didn't really mind being called that by my brother but I'd have to figure out his real name before I called him out. "I'm Lucas. Nice to meet you too".

We all started walking to the mess hall when I whispered in Claus' ear "dude what's that guy's real name?"

"Jeff."

I elbowed him "No! The other guy"

Claus laughed. "His name is Poo."

I was about to elbow him again before he stopped me. "No, dude I'm serious. He's like foreign or something."

I lowered my arm and raised my eyebrows. "Wow. That sucks. I'd hate to think of all the shit he's gone through with a name like that."

Claus laughed.

I smacked my forehead at my unintentional pun, "You know what I mean." I said frustratedly.

"Yeah I know what you mean. I wouldn't worry about it, though. He seems pretty tough."

"I guess so."

We met up with Ninten at the entrance of the mess hall. It was a buffet style set up with kid cuisine-esque trays. The dinner that night was pizza which is hard to mess up but they managed to do it somehow. After we got our food we looked around for a place to sit. Unfortunately I wasn't in charge of finding us a table so we ended up sitting where Claus wanted to sit, which was with Jeff and Poo, and, of course, Ness. Because there was just no way he couldn't be there.

Dinner went pretty normally though, most of us just getting to know each other.

"So, Poo, you're not from here are you?" Claus asked. I was curious as to where he was from as well. Somewhere Eastern definitely.

"No. I'm from New York."

"But you moved to New York from where?"

"My mother's uterus." Poo said blankly.

"...Poo's parents are from Tibet" Jeff said.

Claus and I made a noise of realization before Claus asked, "How about you, Ninten, where are you from?"

"Me?" Ninten responded, "I'm from the middle of ass licking nowhere."

"Ninten and I are from Ohio." Ness said, "So yeah pretty much."

"Wait, you two know each other?" I asked.

"Yeah, Ninten and I are cousins, isn't that right, short stack?" Ness snickered.

"Ness, I hate you with every inch of my body." Ninten said.

"I'm actually from England, myself" Jeff stated.

"Really? But you don't have an accent." Claus said

"I moved when I was about 5 so my accent has faded over the years."

"You can still here it sometimes, if you listen closely." Poo interjected.

The rest of the dinner went on like that, Claus explained that he and I are actually from California and have never moved, which kept the conversation up until the bell rang and someone told us that the assembly was cancelled and to go back to our cabins for the night. We all left the mess hall, said our goodbyes, and I was left to walk with Ness. Alone.

"So, you're from California?" Ness asked as we were walking down the hill, "that's cool, are you from here specifically?"

"No, I'm from Los Angeles." I said dryly

"Wow!" Ness smiled, "do you know any celebrities?"

"Um, I saw Bill Murray at the store one time." I said, hesitantly

"Dude that's so cool! I've never met any celebrities before, but I've always wanted to meet Steve Buscemi."

"What? Why?" I asked, confused.

"I don't know, I guess I just want to know how he made it so far as an actor with such bad teeth."

I snorted but caught myself, "I guess that makes sense."

We made it to the cabin, myself feeling a little less uncomfortable thanks to the small talk. C_asual conversation does wonders doesn't it?_ I sat down on my bed and grabbed my gameboy from my suitcase. I have trouble sleeping at night, especially in new places so I decided early on that I was gonna play until I passed out. A good end to an admittedly not horrible day.

"Hey, is that a gameboy advance?"

I groaned internally but nodded my head. "Yeah."

"Oh man, I didn't think anyone played those anymore."

I was about to snap back an insult for that statement but before I could Ness pulled a GBA out of his suitcase too.

"You wanna play together? I have four swords." Ness said wiggling the game cartridge in his hand along with a connecting cable.

I wanted to say no so badly but... his smile was so genuine. I didn't like him but... I didn't want to let him down either.

I connected my gameboy and we started playing. And you know what?

It was fun.

* * *

**_A/N:_** why haven't I been updating? It's not because I'm busy. It is because I am a lazy asshole and I got my PC running to play DRAMAtical murder. But almost 4k words this chapter! Wow! Did anyone catch my parks and rec or South Park reference? Well if you didn't, just know that there will be many more. Look forward to it.

PS: if anyone's going to Japan expo in San Mateo next month, hmu, I'm gonna be cosplaying lucas, mysterion (South Park) and maybe Mihashi (oofuri) and I'd love to meet some fellow earthbound and especially nescas fans!


	6. insect legs

I woke up the next morning feeling disoriented and pissed off. I had the most god awful crick in my neck from sleeping on the world's thinnest mattress and, looking at my clock, had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before.  
It's hard to go from a quality mattress to an oversized kitchen sponge, that's for sure.  
I looked across the room to where Ness was sleeping. We played video games until midnight last night but I still couldn't sleep after that. I chalk it up mostly to the mattress, but my restless mind definitely played a part. I didn't think just about Ness, but about everything that's happened here so far. All the people I've met. All the things I've said and all the things I might have to say. It kept me awake for hours.

I got out of bed wondering if I should wake up him or not. The wake up call, which turned out to be a 10 second screeching sound that came from the speakers outside didn't seem like it had any effect on him. _He's an even deeper sleeper than me_.  
I decided to refrain from waking him up and walked into the bathroom. _It would be too forward to do that at this point_. After yesterday I sort of... let go of my negative feelings towards Ness. I wouldn't say he and I are friends yet, but I don't really dislike him anymore.  
Thinking back on it, it was actually kind of ridiculous that I just decided to not like him without giving him a chance. He was a nice guy. He had a lot of energy, but it was sort of what made him so easy to talk to. Other than the games we were playing last night, we talked about a lot of stuff. How he has a sister, how they moved to California a few weeks ago with Ninten's family. I told him about LA and as much as I could about film making (admittedly I'm not too well versed in the subject).

Maybe we were friends at this point. But then again maybe he'd wake up and we'd be back to square one. I was too anxious to do anything so I hurriedly shuffled across the cold floor into the bathroom. Ness would have to wake himself up today.

I stepped into the shower, tossing my pajamas on the floor like a slob because I don't have the patience to fold them. I don't know why I expected a relaxing wash in this camp. Relaxation here is for people who sleep in trees. When I turned on the water, I was met with the half melted cousin of the glacier that sunk the titanic. The shower lacked temperature control, so I only stayed in it for about 2 minutes, just enough to make it out of there with my life. Fortunately the towel rack outside the shower was actually towel warmer, the first luxury I've found in camp, so I didn't die of hypothermia. I toweled off my wet hair, wrapped the towel around my waist, and left the bathroom.  
When I went back into the main room of the cabin I saw Ness sitting up in his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. We both said good morning and I went to my bed to get a change of clothes for the day while Ness went to take the second shower.

It was hot as shit in the Santa Cruz mountains so shorts seemed like the way to go. I threw on a pair as well as a black t-shirt and some tennis shoes. Ness came out of the shower and got dressed while I did my hair, then we left to go get breakfast.

Breakfast was my favorite meal of the day, but despite wanting so badly to get eggs and pancakes, I figured it would just be a safer bet if I got cereal. I picked out some generic Cheerio type stuff and sat down at the table with everyone.  
Everybody had a full plate in front of them except for Ninten, who sat down next to me holding only a cup of coffee. Ninten was the one of the thinnest guys I'd ever seen, it was worrying that he wasn't eating breakfast at all, but it wasn't my place to comment on. I just hoped he'd have a bigger lunch.

Conversation that morning wasn't nearly as lively as it was at dinner the night before, and I saw that everyone had dark circles under their eyes. _I guess no one got much sleep last night._ Claus pointed out that we all kinda looked like Ninten which got a few laughs but other than that breakfast went by quietly.

When we finished eating, everyone went outside to see what was on the agenda for the day. It turned out we had to pick from 5 different activities to do for the next 2 hours. We were all torn between the zipline and the farm, seeing as those were the two worst options, and therefore the best ones on the list. In an ironic sense, of course.

We ended up pickng farm which was actually not as lame as I expected. We lived near a park back home and when I was a kid I used to pretend we had farm animals that I had to protect from wolves and bears. There weren't any wolves or bears, but there were raccoons, and they were scary enough.

The camp farm was located in the back of the camp and smelled like the inside of a gas station bathroom. There were chickens, rabbits, and pigs, and every one of them smelled like a foot that had been left out in the sun.  
Claus and Poo went to the chickens, Ninten and Jeff went to the rabbits, and I went to go pet a border collie that was hanging out outside the fence.

The dog was brown and white with long fur and was well groomed, not something I expected from a farm dog, even for a farm on a summer camp. On closer look I saw it also had a collar with the name "Potato" on it. The collie looked at me with its tongue hanging out, which made me feel oddly homesick. I missed my dog. I missed the park near our house. I missed my mom's cooking, and the cafe a few blocks down, and that little ingrove near the freeway with all of the homeless people that I was too scared to walk through. I missed all of it, even after just a day.  
Potato flopped on the ground and I followed suit, burying my face on its stomach. I heard the sound of footsteps grow closer, but I couldn't bring myself to look up.  
"I guess I wasn't the only one that wanted to come pet this dog."  
I turned my head reluctantly towards the voice, already knowing that it was Ness.  
"I'm not a big fan of chickens" I said, proceeding to burying my face back into the Collies stomach.

"Same here. I have a dog back at home named King." He paused. "Seeing this dog makes me miss him a lot. He's a big dog too" Ness kneeled down to the same level as the collie, "but his face isn't as pointy."

I looked up and saw Ness squishing the dogs face. He looked strangely melancholy.

"... I know how you feel. I have a lab retriever mix at home named Boney. I miss him too."

It was silent for a few seconds before Ness spoke up, more chipper than before, probably to erase the disheartened feeling lingering around. "Yeah, King is a mutt, but I've watched a lot of nature shows in my day and I can say he's at least part ovcharka." Ness said, with a horrible Russian accent on "Ovcharka" which made me smile. "He's my best friend, even if sheds everywhere and is a big scared baby. We hang out together and play frisbee. He was like kind of a person in a way, you know?"

I began lazily playing with Potato's wagging tail. "Yeah. Boney is my best friend at home, too, I take him everywhere. I would've taken him with me here if they allowed pets. He would probably catch something nasty and put it in people's cabins for fun."

Ness grinned at me. "Really?"

"Oh yeah, he catches all sorts of stuff. One time he brought a full sized opossum into the house, it started tearing up the living room and he wasn't even phased."

Ness laughed "Wow, how did you get it out?"

"My dad had to come in with like a shovel and a broom and sweep it out, it was a total fiasco." I shuddered at the memory.

"One time King brought in a gopher while I had some friends over and he dropped it on someone's sleeping bag. My friend was so pissed, it was hilarious."

I smiled and we continued telling stories until we were caught by one of the counselors and had to go back over the fence.  
Ness and I climbed over it and walked towards the chickens, where everyone ended up, just in time to see my brother get pecked directly in the eye.

"Oh fuck!" Claus shouted

"Watch your language, young man!" One of the counselors yelled from the other area, not noticing or not caring that he just got maimed.

"Jesus, Claus are you ok?" Ninten asked

"Uh, I think so." He paused worriedly, his hand covering his eye. "I can't get salmonella from that, can I?"

"Dude, no you can't" I said

"Actually I think you can" Poo said, "you can get it if you don't wash your hands after touching a bird and then touching your mouth or eyes."

"No, I heard you can only get it from raw eggs" Jeff said, "then again I don't know all that much about farm animals."

"Did we finally find the first thing that Jeff doesn't know?" Poo said mockingly.

"If you can get it from raw eggs does that mean you can't eat raw cookie dough?" Ness asked.

"Uh, guys-" Claus began

"No, I don't usually think it matters if you're eating store bought cookie dough. I think they assume people will eat it raw." I said.

"So if I make homemade cookies and I decide to eat the dough I should cook the eggs first so then I won't get salmonella?" Ness asked

"Yeah I think so"

"Guys, uh"

"No, that doesn't seem right, the cookies wouldn't solidify if you cooked the eggs first. Plus they'd all have egg chunks in them." Jeff said

"I don't usually make homemade cookies, I'm more of a 'store bought' kind of guy, you know?" Ness added

"Guys!" Claus shouted.

...

"my eye is bleeding."

Everyone quit their babbling and Ninten grabbed Claus' arm.

"Dude, we have to take you to the nurse, right now."

Claus nodded in agreement, pain evident on his face.

"Can you walk?" Ness asked

"No." Claus deadpanned as he stood up.

Ness looked away sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Ness didn't seem like a dumb guy to me, just someone who spoke before thinking about what he was going to say. Pretty much my opposite in that way.

Ninten and Claus almost made it to the front gate of the farm before Ninten stopped in his tracks and looked at us.

"I don't know where the nurse's office is."

That one line turned into a 10 minute long discussion ending with Ninten loudly announcing that they "will figure it out".

With Claus gone I felt kind of vulnerable, but Jeff, Ness, and Poo are good conversationalists so there wasn't an awkward silence while we waited, which I was extremely grateful for. I don't know how to handle those kinds of situations well.

"Oh man, no way, that looks so cool!" Ness said when Claus came back with bandage over his eye.

"I said so too." Ninten nodded.

"It hurts like hell." Claus said and peered at Ninten, "but I guess it's worth it if I look cool."

We spent the rest of the time with the rabbits and Potato after he hopped the fence, deeming the chickens "too dangerous for mere mortals" and the pigs "useless members of society".

When it rolled around to 1:15, half of us had fallen asleep near the fence and the other half were at least half asleep as well. 3 hours was too much time to spend on a fucking farm.

Thankfully time was up and lunch was sandwiches, which were surprisingly decent aside from the fact that all of the bread was wheat bread. One of my true worst enemies. But the cheese selection was good and they had tomatoes, so I couldn't complain too much.

I sat down at the same table we were all sitting at during breakfast and dinner, figuring by this point it was "our table" and eventually everyone joined me with their own food. I was glad to see Ninten had more than just a cup of coffee this time.

"Do you think this camp has a baseball field?" Ness asked to no one in particular.

"I doubt it" Jeff said, "anyways, why do you care? You've never played baseball a day in your life."

"I kind of play baseball. Tracy plays softball so genetically, I have baseball genes." Ness argued

Jeff looked like he was going to say something, but closed his mouth as if it wasn't worth the effort.

"I am going to take that as a concession" Ness grinned

Ninten turned and looked at me with a face that said 'I don't know how him and I are cousins'. I muffled a laugh. Ninten probably knew better than anyone what it was like to live with Ness.

"I actually saw a baseball diamond a little ways away from the place where we decided groups yesterday." Claus interjected

Looking back on it, I remembered seeing something like that as well, but it looked more like a vegetable garden to me.

"Awesome!" Ness cheered, "I'm finally going to learn how to play baseball."

"I'm surprised your dad didn't teach you when you were younger." I said. Ness flinched at my words and his smile fell, making me immediately regret saying anything. I must've hit a sensitive spot.

"Uh, yeah. My dad isn't really... Around a lot. Business trips and stuff, you know?" Ness laughed uncomfortably.

The atmosphere of the table got a lot more tense with that, so I tried to change the subject as quickly as I could.

"I know how to play baseball, I can teach you." I blurted out without thinking. _Oh, fuck._ I thought as I mentally slapped myself for getting into something I would have never agreed to. One on one time with someone I didn't know super well trying to teach him a sport I barely knew how to play wasn't a very appealing concept to me.

But I couldn't hate myself too much when I saw Ness' face light back up. I'd never made anyone's eyes shine before. Mom and Claus excluded.

"Really? You'd do that?" He asked eagerly

"Y-yeah, sure." I said, blushing to my ears. I was finding it was hard to hide my jocund feelings.

The rest of lunch went by normally and we all went back to our cabins when we were finished. I decided to go to Claus' cabin to hang out. I was on better terms with Ness but I was still a lot more comfortable around my brother.

"Dude why are you following me?" He asked when I caught up to him

"I was hoping to chill with you for the next two hours."

"No way man." Claus stopped and turned to me, "I got _no_ sleep last night. There's raccoons under our cabin that were going fucking crazy and I'm using this time to catch up on rest."

"I can sit on the floor."

"Nooo." Claus said, feigning annoyance "go stay at your own cabin, I want you and Ness to become best friends so you can stop following me everywhere like a nervous housewife."

I gave Claus my best 'really dude, really'? look, "I am not following you _everywhere_. I am just..." I gestured vaguely, in an attempt to explain myself, but ended up looking like a confused mime instead.

"Yes, you are," Claus mimicked my gesture. "Now dude, leave," he said with a fake groan. "I'm fuckin exhausted and blind in one eye. You'll be fine by yourself for 2 hours."

I whined theatrically giving my best 'how could you abandon me like this pose' before dramatically flipping my hair with a "fine, I don't need you anyways." and walking away.

Claus and I don't really get mad at each other, or get into arguments and when we have disagreements; we have sort of an unspoken rule to not take them too seriously. Mostly it all just turns into a fake soap opera, but everything always gets resolved and no one is left feeling angry. I don't like fighting or arguing with anyone, so usually I just give up whatever side I'm on to avoid conflict, but with Claus I can actually stick up for myself since it's all jokes. It's a lot easier on my nerves than yelling or getting yelled at.

Speaking of nerves, as I walked down I saw Ness standing at my cabin door. It was weird... He was sort of just... well, standing there. I was perplexed but I kept walking towards him, his face brightening considerably when he saw me.

"Yo! I was hoping you'd come back, I uh, wanted to wait for you so you wouldn't freak out."

I gave him a confused look "What?"

"Well, to put it simply, there is a bear in there." He pointed to the cabin door "I was standing out here to make sure you didn't have to go through the same shock I did when I walked in."

I raised my shoulders in utter confusion. "There is a bear? In there?" I said, pointing.

Ness nodded, "yes, there is. I opened the door, I saw him, and well, now I'm here."

"How are you so calm about this?!" I sputtered

"Um, well, this bear seems pretty docile. Plus when I get scared I don't really scream, I go into more of a quiet panic".

"Dude, we have to go get someone to take him out!"

"Yeah that's probably the best thing to do. But let me just see if he's willing to settle this peacefully"

I was bewildered but before I could say anything Ness opened the door and lo and behold, there was a large black bear sitting squat in the middle of the floor. Upon closer look, I saw Ness was right. This bear was just chilling in our cabin, super docile.

"Should we... tell it to leave?" Ness asked

"It's probably worth a try" I surmised, unable to think of anything else to do. I didn't have much experience with wildlife, especially wildlife that was bigger than a toaster.  
"Can you leave, please?" I said, gesturing to the door. I didn't think it would do anything because reasoning with a bear is absolutely ridiculous, but it was worth a try, at least.  
There were a few seconds of silence where the only thing I could hear was the sound of my heart beating in my chest. Bears are fucking scary in person.  
Then suddenly the bear stood up, looked at me, and then at Ness, somewhat expectantly I might add.

"We don't have any food here" Ness urged, but the bear kept staring at us. "...Maybe we could have lunch sometime?" Ness added quietly. I gave him an extremely befuddled look at that, but  
the bear looked at me and I nodded furiously in agreement, emotion trumping logic ten-fold.

At that, the animal walked over to my dresser, took my only hat that I brought with me, and left. Ness closed the door behind him and we both sighed in relief, extremely dazed at what just happened. We looked at each other and he began to giggle. That made me start, and eventually we were both on the floor, roaring with laughter, the only phrase said being a choked out "he took your hat" from Ness.

We eventually calmed down enough to look around the cabin for any damages. Not finding any, we sat down on our beds.

"We should name him." Ness said

I looked at him incredulously.

"We should." He pressed "how about Mega Ultra Destructor?"

"Sounds good to me." I decided to let him name the bear whatever he wanted, it's not like I could've come up with anything better.

"Oh!" Ness said, "That reminds me, we have to decide on a cabin name. I found out yesterday but you weren't around so I couldn't tell you."

I pressed my lips together guiltily. I_t's cause I was avoiding you_.

"It has to be like an object or like a team name, you know?" Ness continued "I thought it would be better to collaborate so I haven't thought up anything yet."

I leaned back on my bed against the wall in thought, pushing my last thought aside, "how about... Well, what's this gonna be for?"

"Competitions and identification apparently."

"Hmm."

"Hmm."

"Well," Ness said, "if it's for a competition, we would want to win, right?"

"Yeah probably"

"But we also don't want our name to seem too arrogant. Plus if we have an arrogant name like 'the best' and we lose we'll look even worse."

"That makes sense."

Ness put his hand to his chin and hummed thoughtfully, "then we shall call ourselves 'the third best', so people are still intimidated but we can mess up sometimes."

"I think you're overthinking this. What's your favorite type of music?"

"Rock, definitely."

"I like jazz. So... What can we do with that?"

"What's the combination of those?"

"Jazz rock." I gave myself an unimpressed look which Ness nodded at.

"I don't mind it but, we should try to branch out past what kind of music we like."

I raised my eyebrows "what do you mean?"

"I mean like, something that sort of defines us, based on appearance maybe?"

"That... What?" He lost me.

"Ok just roll with me. Let's say like, I have black hair and you have blonde hair. I like rock and you life jazz. Can we do anything with that?"

"I don't think so."

"Guess again. Let me ask you, Lucas, do you like punk rock at all?"

"Kind of? I mean it's not really a genre I seek out."

"But you like jazz and stuff with trumpets, right?"

"Yeah definitely" I nodded

"So back to why I brought up our hair. It's 2 different colors right? Black and blonde."

"Yeah."

"Well, there is a genre of music out there called two tone. The two colors being black and white, kind of like our hair color."

"What does that have to do with trumpets?"

"Well," Ness announced proudly "it's also another name for ska music, which is..." Ness patted his mattress repeatedly like a drumroll "punk rock music that uses jazz instruments like trumpets and saxophones!"

"Two tone..." I let it sit on my tongue. It was kind of catchy, kind of stupid, but it wasn't terrible.  
"That sounds like the best we're gonna get." I said.

"To be honest I sort of just made that up as I went along, but I think it fits pretty well."

"Yeah, I'm good with that. Do we go to the main office and tell them or..." I trailed off

"I don't know. I guess we'll find out sooner or later."

"I guess we will." I repeated the name a few times to myself "It's starting to grow on me." I smiled timidly

"Then our cabin name is now officially two tone." Ness looked out the window "Look out world," He paused, "punk rock is not dead."

――

The afternoon activity time was cancelled for the day (great planning on the camp's part.) so we all got an extra two and a half hours to do absolutely fuck all. Ness eventually went out to meet up with Jeff and friends, and I stayed in and caught up on some sleep.

I immediately regretted it, though, when I woke up at 6:50 feeling groggy and disoriented.  
I dragged myself out of bed and towards Claus' cabin, only to be disappointed when I saw that it was empty.  
Resigning myself to the fact that I would have to walk to dinner alone like a fucking loser, I made my way towards the mess hall.

When I got there I grabbed some slices of mediocre pizza and made my way over to the table.

"Look who finally decided to show up" Claus said

"Oh, man," Ness said when he saw me, shoveling pizza down his throat "Sorry dude! I tried waking you up but you wouldn't even budge. Glad you're here now though, wouldn't want you to miss dinner"

"Yeah, pretty much the only way to wake up Lucas is to summon clockwork from the abyss and fast forward time." Claus jeered.

I was too groggy to come up with a witty comeback so I just sat down begrudgingly and ate my dry pizza.

"So, Claus, how long do you have to have that bandage on?" Jeff asked

"Like two weeks. It's fucking crazy."

I drifted in and out of the conversation for the rest of dinner. I was in that gross funk that you can only get from long naps, so talking and eating were especially challenging for me.  
Eventually we finished up and made our way to an outdoor stadium on the other side of the camp, past the lake.  
It was dark by now, and absolutely swarming with mosquitoes. Natures assholes.

We sat around the stage while some overly peppy guy talked to us about respecting nature or something. I wasn't totally listening. Until of course, he mentioned the bear, or better known as 'Ultra Mega Destructor'. It seemed that after he left our cabin, he went and roamed around the camp, no doubt causing alarm to everyone walking by.

"If you happen to see the bear, do not approach it and immediately tell a counselor. We don't want any dangerous wildlife in the camp so if someone spots it we'll call animal control." The speaker said.

"Dude!" Ness whispered to me from two seats over with a huge smile on his face that said 'we know that bear!'. I leaned forward grinning too, and we snickered at each other.  
Claus looked at me quizzically when we finished. I shrugged and sat back, a small smile still on my face. I was surprised Ness hadn't mentioned the bear to anyone while he was out, but I couldn't help but feel a little proud that we had an inside joke.

――

The assembly finished up and we all went back to our cabins. Ness and I played video games for a while until we decided to sleep at 10, both of us exhausted.

I changed into my pajamas and fell asleep with relative until...

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt"

I woke up, my eyes still closed, my heart slowly breaking. If there was one thing I hated more than anything about summer, it was mosquitoes.  
I am a very deep sleeper, if you haven't noticed by now, but the sound of a mosquito is the only thing that can immediately wake me up, and keep me awake. For hours.

I sat up and whispered "I can't see shit" under my breath before climbing out of bed and turning the light on as quietly and unintrusively as possible. I didn't want to wake Ness up and by my good fortune his face was shoved into the pillow so the light didn't disturb him.

I couldn't find the bug anywhere so I sat and waited for it to come to me. It did eventually, I could hear it near my ear, but I couldn't catch it.

I heard groaning from the other bed and saw Ness lift is head up and look at me with squinty eyes. "Dude, what time is it?"  
I felt anxious and guilty for waking him up accidentally. "Um, 3:25"

"Oh." Ness said blankly. "Why are you awake then?"

I felt really lame saying it and even more guilty that I woke him up over something so small "There's a mosquito in here..." I trailed off nervously not knowing what else to say, or how to explain my selfish actions.

"Oh." Ness said, as if that was a good enough explanation for him, "Here, I'll help you find it." He said, getting up, his bed head almost as bad as mine.

My eyes widened in surprise and I stood up in protest "no, you don't have to I can-"

"No, don't worry, you'd do the same for me." Ness waved me off as he rubbed his eyes.  
I felt my face heat up. Not only was he not annoyed that I woke him up in the middle of the night, but he insisted on helping me out with my lame problem. I was too moved to properly speak, so I just nodded my head rapidly, my heart pounding in my chest.

We looked around the cabin for 25 minutes until Ness spotted the mosquito on the ceiling and proceeded to throw his shoe at it with incredibly accurate precision. It was very impressive.

We went back to bed after that, but I couldn't get back to sleep.

I was too busy thinking.

* * *

_**A/N:**__Yo. Here I am again with a new chapter. It's funny I wrote this whole chapter the day after I published the last one and I re-read it and pretty much said to myself "wow. That was terrible." So I re-wrote it in like 3 days and then I just didn't proof it for like 4 weeks. If you're ever around and u think "wow this butthole hasn't updated in a while", tweet me and tell me to get my ass in gear or I'll never get anything done. _

_Anyways, I re-read the first 4 chapters of this story and I've decided I'm a terrible writer with no continuity so I might do a re-write before I post the next chapter. Also I don't want to ask for reviews, just wanna give a shout out to those that have reviewed so far, it brightens my day and I really love it when ya'll come talk to me on twitter too. Final word, I'm a pretentious fuck and I drew fanart for my own story, check it out if you want. __ pkbodyrockin. deviantart art/Cabin-479292180?ga_submit_new=10%253A1409466707_


	7. 7-11 but without the 11

**_A/N: _**_I really try not to do ones at the beginning of the chapter but here's the song for later in this chapter www. youtube watch?v=xMr6XianjR8 and since I've already got you here, I guess it's a good time to mention that I don't own any of these characters or the earthbound series. This disclaimer applies for the whole fic by the way, so Nintendo, thanks for not suing me._

* * *

Abstract images flashed through the back of my mind. Dark jewel tones creating swirls behind my eyelids as I sat in the warm bundle of blankets surrounding me. I trailed my hand along the cool wooden rim of the bedside. The only thing I could see was the faint light coming in through one of the windows. The only thing I could hear was the constant breathing of my roommate and myself.  
My roommate... Ness... What was he dreaming about? Were the patterns of light when he closed his eyes the same as mine? I wondered about him... what does he think about? Does he think about things like college? About things like breakfast tomorrow? Does he think... about me?

At that same time of night, one boy sat in his bed, his head in his knees, clutching his stomach. The boy was thin, with tired eyes and jet black hair. His skin was so pale you could see the veins on his eyelids. He sat in silence in his bed, not waiting to wake his roommate. Tonight was another night he would spend sitting in the dark, willing his body to hold down whatever he managed to eat that day. Praying that the dust in his cabin would not cause him to erupt in a fit of coughs. Ninten sighed into his knees. Another sleepless night.

"Dude these pancakes taste like ass."

"I warned you."

Conversation was lively at the table that morning, Ness and Jeff were bantering and one of us would pop in occasionally to add some kind of joke into the conversation. All of us except Ninten. He arrived at the table later than everyone else with a cup of coffee in his hands, looking even paler than usual, with the dark circles under his eyes an entire shade darker. He sat down between Claus and I, making barely any noise. I didn't want to say anything, but he looked awful.

"Woah, Ninten you don't look so good." Claus said mockingly, but with a smudge of concern. So much for not saying anything.

Ninten stared down at his coffee, slouched over with his nose almost touching the brim. "I'm fine. Just a small stomach ache. Just let me sit here for a little while and I'll be back to normal."

"You still having health problems, Ninten?" Ness asked

Ninten nodded.

"Oh. Sorry to hear it." Ninten looked like he wasn't able To explain so Ness continued to the group, "Ninten has a weak immune system, but it really only affected him when we were kids."

As soon as Ness finished his sentence, Ninten's face smacked sharply against the table, spilling coffee everywhere. Claus and I immediately grabbed his shoulders and hoisted him back into a sitting position. His eyes were shut and his head drooped down to his chest.

"Alright, I'm gonna go take him to the nurse." Claus said, "I'll meet up with you guys later. Poo, you have my number so text me when you guys decide where to go today." Claus pulled Ninten out of his seat and put him on his back. With the size difference between the two of them, it was no surprise that Claus was able to carry him so easily.

Ninten's legs dangled like willow branches cloaked in coffee soaked socks. I hope he's ok.

"Mmmmmmgh"

"You awake?" Claus asked. He was halfway to the nurse's office with Ninten sitting limply on his back.

"Yeah" Ninten said weakly.

"Alright, now tell me what's wrong."

Ninten groaned.

"I'm taking you to the nurses office." Claus said. "I know you think I haven't noticed you not sleeping, but I have. And I also know it's not just because of the raccoons."

Ninten burried his face into the back of Claus' shoulder with frustration and mumbled something unintelligible.

"You're in too much pain to talk, the nurse will help out. She's there just for that, you know."

They made it up the back of the camp to the nurse's building in silence after that. The smell of the camp was dry and woodsy, and pine needles crunched under Claus' shoes as he walked.

He and Ninten melded together well. They were both pranksters, both preferred savory food to sweet, and both wanted to go to UCLA when they graduated high school. In Claus' eyes, they had already become great friends.  
Ninten came off as a bit stoic when Claus first met him. More reserved, but not too shy like Lucas. He was a lot like Claus in that way. Willing to show off only a surface of emotions. Or at least finding the need to only show off what's necessary. But both of them were willing to go a little bit deeper with each other. Like they were on a wavelength that only two of them could see, talking to each other but hearing more than words could say.

But if there was one thing that really set Ninten aside for Claus, it was his ability to make him laugh. It wasn't like Claus had a heart of stone, he laughed at normal jokes, all that stupid shit on TV and in movies, but Ninten's humor was so unique. No matter how lame he was feeling, Ninten's jokes could cheer him up. No matter how lame Ninten was feeling, he'd still crack jokes like it was going out of style. Most of them were pun based, too, which just made it all that much better. To Claus, this was Ninten's best feature.

On the day Claus had gotten injured after the incident with the chicken, he and Ninten walked around for what seemed like an eternity looking for the nurse's office. Claus could only see with one eye, and the other was squinted in order to block tears. He had too much pride to cry, especially in front of Ninten, but it was damn hard not to when your eye had just gotten pierced by a live animal. Ninten noticed, (it was hard not to), and from that point on, the only words uttered from his mouth were ones along the lines of "better keep an _eye_ out for it" and "let me know if anything _catches your eye_. I know you're really a man of _vision_". Claus and Ninten were laughing so hard during that that Claus forgot about the pain until they made it to the office. He didn't have to cry in front of anyone, and he was thankful. He was thankful to Ninten for that.

Ninten drooped backwards, snapping Claus out of his thoughts. They had made it to the nurse's office, lovingly titled "Camp Ward", hidden behind some trees. It was a small building in the back of the camp with chipping paint and a worn out sign that swayed even without wind in the air.

"Ok, we're here."

Claus put the shorter boy down on his feet in front of him, and knocked on the door.

It swung open to reveal a young woman with bright pink hair and black training gloves.

"Yo! Claus, Ninten, long time no see!"

"Hi nurse K"

"Jesus, it's cold out there, Come on inside."

They walked into the one room building, (which was just as cold as the outside, ironically enough) and closed the door. It had a cot on the left side of the room and a desk with numerous drawers and an office chair on the right. Behind that was an old door that led to a dark room filled with files and simple medicines. There were dew drops on the windows and the whole place had the essence of a greenhouse, despite it not having any plants inside.

Kumatora cracked her knuckles and sat down in the office chair. "What brings you two back today? Problems with the eye?"

"No, nurse K, actually, we're here for Ninten today."

Ninten nodded and Kumatora sighed.

"Jeez, you two get injured a lot." She ran a hand through her hair. "Ninten you can go ahead and rest on the cot there and I'll have Claus talk for you. It looks like you can't do much right now."

Claus looked down to see that Ninten had completely passed out on the paper covered cot.

"That's probably smart." Claus said. "I don't really know everything, but I do know that he hasn't been sleeping well, or really eating all that well. It might be all the coffee, I'm not sure, but this morning he sort of violently passed out at breakfast and I thought I should bring him here."

Kumatora hummed questioningly to herself and opened her file cabinet. She pulled out a folder and opened it up on her side table.

"It's a good thing you brought him before it got any worse... Ninten A. Rockwell, right?" Claus nodded and Kumatora continued. "According to the medical file his parents filled out, he's asthmatic and anemic, as well as shows some signs of gastritis. He's taking iron supplements, antacids, and needs to have an inhaler on him at all times." She closed the file. "He's not a super healthy kid."

Claus' eyes widened with the new information. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Well, since it says he has iron supplements, find out if he's been taking those. I can't give him any prescription drugs, seeing as we're at camp and all, so the best I can do is give him some DayQuil and a heating blanket." She dug around in one of her drawers. "This might be stress related too so make sure he's not worrying about things too much." Claus was handed a bottle of the dark liquid and a small heating pad. "It might also be something in this camp's food. Has he been throwing up at all?"

"I... don't know."

"Hmmm. Well, he looks pretty relaxed now, you can go and play with your other friends, I'm sure he'll be fine in a little while."

Claus sat down in a chair next to the bed and put his hands on the frame of the cot, looking at Ninten. "I think I'd rather stay here for now."

Kumatora smiled. "Alright, then."

"Alright now I want you to strap in and when I say 'peace out', I want you to give me a smile and a nice peace sign!"

"Is that absolutely necessary? I'd rather just take my turn, I'm not the biggest fan of heights." Jeff said to the overly enthusiastic counselor in charge of the zip line.

After Claus had left we all made a vote to do the zip line. I voted in favor just because everyone else had, too, but honestly I had a mad fear of heights and with Claus not around I was starting to lose my cool.

"You can do whatever you want as long as you're having fun!" The counselor said.  
Jeff stepped forward and put his helmet on with determination. He was the first one going today so whatever he thought about it would surely affect everyone else's opinions.

He pressed his feet against the end of the platform and pushed off into the air like a paper plane tossed gracefully out a window. The sounds of the zip line passed through our ears like music and everyone held their breath as they watched Jeff glide down the line. The hair uncovered by his helmet blew in the breeze and for a brief moment, it was as if the universe had given way, and instead of Jeff moving around it, it was the one moving for Jeff. The wind carried him through the trees, making him seem more graceful with every movement and sound. He arrived at the bottom, his feet touched the platform on after another, and then suddenly, it was finished.

"How was it?" Poo yelled from our platform.

"Totally fucking lame, dude."

A collective groan erupted from our side, and everyone suddenly regretted choosing this as our activity. Jeff Andonuts was a reliable source. If he didn't like it, then chances are, no one else would either.

"Man, I was kinda looking forward to this one, too." Ness said to me and I nodded in fake agreement. I was relieved, if it wasn't all that fun, it honestly couldn't be that terrifying either.

The rest of us took our turn (and by rest of us I mean ALL of the campers that signed up for the zip line) and by the time we were all finished, lunch had already come along.

Ness and I walked to the dining hall together after that. For some reason he seemed proud of me. It was like he knew I was afraid of going on the zip line, but there's no way he could've known that. Right?

Lunch for the day was something un-intangible so I grabbed a pop tart left over from breakfast and sat down at the table instead. Looking around, it seemed like everyone had similar ideas, except Ness who was eating what looked like a bad 1st grade craft project, but made only out of things you would find in the back of your fridge.

"Well, at least we kind of expected the zip line to be terrible" Jeff said.

"Yeah. Claus and Ninten are lucky they missed it." Ness laughed

"I'm not sure if 'lucky' is the right word."

Lunch finished without a hitch and after Poo got a text that Claus and Ninten were back at their cabin, we decided to pay them a visit to see how Ninten was doing.

When we made it to the front of the cabin, a loud sharp noise erupted from one of the speakers behind us.

"Attention all campers, today's free time will be extended until dinner due to the talent acts at the all camp assembly tonight. We hope you use this time to practice your acts and make them they best they can be."

A loud click ended the announcement and the door to Claus' cabin suddenly swung open with intensity

"Did you hear that?" Claus practically yelled to the group "we have to do a talent act. We have to!"

I should've expected this, Claus is very competitive. Two years ago during our middle school talent show he put habanero extract in the shoes of all the competitors. I think one kid even had to go to the hospital. Well, anyways ever since then he's been banned at school from doing anything competitive so, yeah, it's no surprise that he was all for doing this.

"Come on, we have to plan!" Claus pulled us into the cabin and sat us in a circle on the floor. Ninten was sleeping in his bed with his blankets wrapped loosely around his shoulders.

"Shouldn't we do this somewhere else? Ninten is sleeping in here." I said

"Don't worry, he's out like a light." Claus said, reassuringly

A weak and annoyed "no I'm not, asshole." sounded from the corner. Ninten was lying with his face towards us and his hand down the side of the bed frame.

"Ninten, how are you feeling?" Poo suddenly said, very serious.

"I've been better." He responded.

"If you need us to let you rest, we can leave immediately."  
We all nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry, Ninten is here to provide meaningful input to our creative process, right?" Claus said with a gigantic shit eating grin

Ninten glared at him pointedly.  
"You're damn right I am."

With that settled, Claus made a point to dissect every asset we had in order to win, starting with us naming our best talent.

Claus pointed at Jeff, "useful skills."

Jeff's eyes widened in surprise of Claus sudden statement. "Well, um, I guess that it would have to be that I can fix almost anything!"

"You!" He pointed at Poo

"High pain tolerance."

"Lucas!"

"Uhm, uh" I was wracking my brain for a solid talent I had. Being put on the spot like that made me completely blank on every part of my life. "Tap dancing!"

"I said a _good_ talent, dammit!" Claus said with a voice similar to a 1920s New York con-artist

"You!" He said, pointing to Ness, accent still in place.

"I play guitar!" Ness said loudly. He sounded a startled soldier on their first day of boot camp.

"Ninten!" Claus said without turning around to look at him.

Ninten groaned and pulled his blanket over his head.

"Alright!" He said, as if the groan was good enough of an answer. "Well... Let's see.." Claus scratched his chin, still speaking in that fast talk old movie voice, which was honestly starting to get on my nerves.

"What about you?" Ness said to Claus, rightfully turning the tables, "what's your skill?"

"Baking." Claus said without missing a beat.

The room was silent in thought for about 3 minutes after that, until Claus broke the silence with a no-doubt, mind shatteringly brilliant idea.

"I have no idea what to do." He finally concluded.

"Well I think this whole thing is preposterous" Jeff said, sounding particularly snobbish, "but why not a small skit?"

"That would be good.." I said, "If we had Internet and found a script. I don't think we can write one ourselves without it turning out... Well..." I didn't feel the need to finish my sentence.

"Acrobatic routine?" Poo said

"No way. You remember how that went last time." Jeff shuddered

Everyone paused in thought before a long grating whine came from the corner. "Musical... Number."

Claus rushed to Ninten's side dramatically and said "Ninten, what did you say? Old Timmy's stuck in a well?"

"I said do a musical number, fuckass." Ninten said, pushing Claus' face away limply.

"That would work but we don't have any instruments."

"I have my guitar." Ness interjected

"Alright _besides_ bumble bee over there," Claus gestured to Ness who looked down at his shirt, fazed. "None of us have instruments." He finished

"That's not entirely true..." Jeff said nervously. Everyone looked at him. "I may or may not have been looking around the camp for auto parts and stumbled upon a storage room full of costumes and instruments."

"Why would there be abandoned auto parts here?" Poo sighed as if they had gone through this a million times.

"It was worth looking!"

"But this is awesome news!" Claus said "was there a bass? That's the only thing I can play."

"I do believe there was."

"I can.. drums" Ninten groaned

"You can't even talk, I think you might want to sit this one out" Ness piped

"I'll be fine in like 2 hours"

"I can play the trumpet, of course." Jeff beamed

"He's a Boy Scout" Poo whispered to me, clearly unimpressed

"I am an _eagle scout_" Jeff seethed. Poo put his hands up nervously in apology. Clearly they'd been through this before as well.

"I actually can't play anything." I said, hesitantly.

"Me neither, actually." Poo added. "I played the oboe for about half a year but that's really it."

"This is perfect." Ness suddenly interjected. "I know exactly what we can do." He looked right at me with the same bright eyes as I had seen just a day before. "Lucas, can you sing?"

I sat there stunned before managing to get out a small "no." Not in front of people, anyway.

"That's a lie, yes he can." Claus said, pushing me forward like a prized vegetable at a contest.

"No, nope I can't." I argued

"He's lying to all of you, he's a great singer."

Before I could get another word in Ness clapped his hands together and said "Great! You can sing backup vocals!"

I made a discouraging noise in the back of my throat, feeling like a dog being forced to take a bath.

"Unless... You wanted to switch with me and sing lead?" Ness said, impudently.

"No I'll sing backup!" I said a bit too quickly. I was not going to sing lead in front of people. No way.

"Awesome." Ness smiled at me. I could feel a smile creep up on my face too. Ness' good mood was just infectious like that. "Poo. You said you learned the oboe. Could you learn how to play the saxophone in like an hour?"

"I don't see why not."

"Excellent. I have the perfect song for us to play."

For the next, who knows how long, (we skipped dinner, I know that for sure) we practiced an entire routine. Ness wrote out all the music notes for each instrument from scratch, Poo learned the saxophone like learning a new word, and everyone pretty much got together and made a band in like 3 hours.  
I guess Claus' competitive nature and ability to organize a large group of people pays off sometimes.

By the time the talent show came around, everyone was pretty sick of our song, but damn if we didn't have it down pat.  
Ninten managed to practice with us for a while, but by around 7 we all decided he should save his energy.

We made it to the event center and sat down on the back stairs. Claus and Ninten went to add our names to the list of performers and I looked around the theatre. There was a lot of competition. I was nervous, not for myself, but for everyone else. If we lost, then everyone's hard work wouldn't pay off.

As the room began to fill up with more and more people, my hands started to get cold. We'd be playing a song most of us hadn't heard until this afternoon. Everyone would be judging us. What if we messed up? What if I messed up and ruined it all? What if I messed up and ruined it all and everyone hated me after that? My hands were starting to sweat and my heartbeat sped up rapidly.

"Welcome campers! I hope you're all excited about tonight's show!" The overly peppy camp head didn't make things any better and my breathing started to become shallow. Stage fright's a bitch. "All of us counselors are looking forward to seeing all of your fabulous acts, so without further ado, let's get our first group up here." He looked down at his clipboard "up first we have... 'A lotta Enchiladas' who are going to be performing a song."

Thank god that wasn't us. I don't know what I'd do if we had to go first.

"Lucas, get up, that's us." Ness said to me, grabbing my hand.

"What?" I said, dumbfounded.

"That's our name. Sweet, right?" Ninten said a few feet away.

"You named our band 'A Lotta Enchiladas'?!" I yelped. I was starting to panic and everyone in the theatre began to stare at us.

I suddenly felt fingers intertwine with mine. "Don't worry about it." Ness said, gently holding my hand "let's just go down there... and rock the fuck out"

For some reason those words were all I needed to hear. Funny how vulgarity seems to break down walls like that. I looked him in the eyes and whispered "punk rock's not dead."

And then we were walking. We were all walking down the stairs, the eyes of 300 other teens were on us. But I wasn't fazed. I was so full of adrenaline that my stage fright had morphed into a sort of high and everything seemed distant. Everything except the hand in mine.

And then we were on the stage, the hand was gone, and I was blinded by the bright lights. The sound of clapping drumsticks sounded behind me. One. Two. Three.

"Ropes been cut, sailing away, no more raining on our sunny days"

We sang.

"They're way too bossy and downright mean, I won't let them toss scary thoughts in your dreams"

Ness' and my voice melded together like night and day to create a beautiful sunset of sound.

"How could they think what's wrong is right, always coming at us looking for a fight"

We were surrounded by the sounds of trumpets, the steady pounding of the base and drums. I felt alive.

"I wanna live in peace but they're loving the war"

Ness' voice wasn't the most impressive thing on the planet. It was unpolished and shaky, but somehow it was perfect. It was perfect because it was just so _Ness_.

He looked at me with shining eyes and a grin. "But you know me, shit you know me."

We sang together again.

"I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I say we ditch them, baby"

We were rock stars. The bright lights, the big sounds, I felt like I was floating.

"I, I, I, I, I, I, I, say, those kids are losers, baby"

And then, it stopped.

At first it was the drums, then the bass, and then the rest of it.

Why? Why did it stop?  
The song wasn't over.

I turned around and got my answer.

Ninten had thrown up all over the drums and passed out. Whoops.

Everyone was already rushing to his side, and the counselors were running to the stage. Claus' bass was still hanging off his shoulders as he pulled Ninten's vomit soaked face off of the drums.

The room was silent aside from the whispers of the audience. The judgmental murmurs sifted through the crowd like a contemptuous sandstorm.

It was our fault for pushing him so hard. Why did we do this?  
A wave of regret hit me hard and it felt like my chest was filled with cinderblocks.

Claus picked up Ninten and put him on his shoulders as Ness took the mic and faced the audience. 600 odd eyes turned to the boy in the red cap and he cleared his throat.

"Ta da!"

Ness struck a finishing pose with both arms outstretched in triumph while we carried Ninten out of the building. What a jackass.

As I exited the building to the cold outside air, the sounds of loud cheers came from inside and I couldn't help but grin. That Ness certainly knew how to please a crowd.  
I was, presumably the only one that heard it, though, because the rest of the group was huddled together with concerned looks on their faces.

"I'll take him back to our cabin. I don't think the nurse can do anything." Claus sighed.

Jeff and Poo nodded in agreement "if there's anything at all that you need, don't hesitate to ask." Jeff assured him.

"I'll have my phone on me." Poo affirmed, holding up his incredibly dated flip phone.

"Alright." Claus said tiredly. He turned around and began to walk up the hill towards his cabin with Ninten on his back. I knew I shouldn't go with them.

He seemed kind of... Protective of Ninten. Or... Maybe protective isn't the right word. I've lived with Claus for my entire life (no surprise) and in all the years that he's been my brother, he hasn't really been so close with anyone as he is with Ninten. It's like Ninten broke down all his walls somehow. The closest friend Claus has ever had is Fuel back in LA, but he and Claus were always more like the typical douchey bros that threw rocks at cars than friends who shared secrets and worries with each other. But with Ninten it's different. I've never seen him care so openly about someone outside our family before.

It was nice but it made me feel sort of... odd. I know that Claus is the older twin, so he never wanted to share his deeper emotions with me, (I think he feels like he has the responsibility to be my rock, and hell, I'm thankful for that), but being excluded from the life of my best friend and brother... kinda fucking sucks.

A hand on my shoulder shook me out of my thoughts.

"That was pretty good. A lot better than the first time I tried to make a band." Ness laughed.

But then again, it wasn't like Claus was my only friend.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ Hey y'all sorry for not posting so much, the fall play's happening soon at my school so rehearsal is taking up all my time. Anyways, first Clausten interaction! Woo! Very excited about those two shitlords._

_As for the music, I don't know if it's at all apparent but if there's gonna be one type of music in this fic, it's gonna be ska! It's my favorite genre and the song I used in here was actually the inspiration for this whole story so I really felt like I should put it in. Well, see you next chapter!_


	8. Sideways Infinity

"Hey Ninten... you awake?"

Claus sat on the floor by Ninten's bed, resting softly against the frame. Ninten was asleep, his breath ever present in the quiet cabin.

"I have some stuff I wanna say. I don't know if you can hear me or not but... uh.. I guess I'm just gonna say it."

Claus paused, waiting for some kind of response. One didn't come.

"Look, Ninten... I, I really like you. I really like who you are and I like hanging out with you and stuff..." He paused. "I know we just met a little while ago but I feel like I've known you for so long. You're such a cool friend and, shit, you're so creative and you make me laugh and you're so awesome and just... I love you, dude. Not like in a weird way but like, in like a friend way I think. I like you and you make me happy. It's like... I don't know, it's weird."

Claus brushed a hand through his hair and looked around the room.

"I don't know what's going on with you but... I won't leave your side. You don't deserve to go through whatever this is. We've only known each other for a while, but... But I promise I'm here for the long run."

He grabbed Ninten's hand

"So... feel better, alright? Look at me again and talk to me. I want to hear your voice. I want..." He laughed "I want to hear all your stupid fucking puns. Please Ninten, it's been 2 days. Please just wake up."

He paused.

"I heard them saying they might send you home."

He brought Ninten's hand closer to him.

"I really don't want you to go, Ninten. I mean, who's gonna help me prank the head of the camp? Lucas can't do it." He grinned and shook his head. "No, it's gotta be you, man. I don't trust anyone else to help me with that." He paused, "Oh man, this is weird. You make me feel so weird, you know? Even when you're all gross and pukey. You make me so confused."

Claus pressed his head into Ninten's hand.

"I don't want camp to end yet, Ninten. If you leave early what am I gonna do? I'm gonna go back to LA and I'm never gonna see you again."

He looked at Ninten's sleeping face and brought his hand away from his head.

"And you're gonna go back home and go to school and shit man you're gonna... You're gonna go out with that girl you like." He said with a sad smile, "She seems really cool. You both like hats, too, right? Yeah. You'll get the confidence to ask her out at some point, but―... but Ninten...  
I'm just not ready to say goodbye yet."

"Alright campers listen up! I want no nonsense happening on this trip. If you are going to go camping tonight, you have to be fully prepared. I want you packed up and ready to go at 5 pm sharp."  
So as it turns out, the only things the camp director is good for is yelling the opening speech at the beginning of camp and shouting at us about the outdoor camping trip right now. I understand that it's the only thing that takes place outside of camp grounds and it's easy to get lost, but oh my god did he have to shatter four windows every time he spoke? I scowled at the angry lecture, much to Ness' amusement, who seemed more used to yelling than I was.

It was 'the thieves' night to go out on what Ness liked to call a "survival mission", but what was really just a normal camping trip in the forest.  
Although I should've been hesitant to go, I already smelled like the grit of the outdoors and according to every nature survival show I've ever seen, that was pretty much the only requirement to make it out alive. I figured I'd gone this far, I might as well stick it out for the whole time. Plus, after the talent show, my tolerance for whatever life threw at me practically skyrocketed and I was feeling rather numb.

And about that show... well, after our performance (if you could call it that), Claus and Ninten went back to their cabin, with Ninten passed out in Claus' arms. However the rest of us, who had no excuse to leave, had no choice but to go back into the main building where hundreds of teenage faces were waiting to judge us.

It was intense.

The moment we walked back in, there was dead silence. All of the counselors were gone, seemingly absent after Ninten blacked out, and all eyes focused on us. There was a short pause and then the entire building erupted in cheers. For, well, us.

Before I could react Ness grabbed the mic from the center of the stage and bowed.

"Thank you, thank you. We'll be here all summer. Our band is 'A lotta Enchiladas', thank you so much for your support. Up next we have..." Ness, having suddenly taken the role of talent show MC, looked around the audience before locking eyes on one kid at the bottom of the crowd. "You. Whatever you're doing." Ness pointed at him and gestured for him to come on the stage.

"Me? I uh, don't have anything prepared!" The camper said in a panic.

"Get on down here, I'm sure you'll do fine!"

The kid ended on doing a fully choreographed version of 'Putting on the Ritz', with full musical accompaniment, supposedly off the top of his head.

"Didn't have anything prepared, my ass." Ness mumbled.

The rest of the night went on like that, Ness picking campers to go down and show off whatever talents they had, until one of the counselors came back and kicked everyone out to their cabins.

It ended up being a lot funner than I thought.

"Alright, campers move out!" The voice of the camp head shook me from my thoughts, and Ness and I turned to our cabin to start packing.

"Jeez, what a kill joy. I'm glad he's not going on this trip with us" Ness said, making faces at him over his shoulder.

"I doubt he'd even be useful if something dangerous showed up. He's like 1% evil and 99% hot gas." I replied.

"Did you just hit me with a spongebob quote?" Ness said, giving an incredulous laugh, "God I'm glad we're friends"

I smiled. "Me too."

When we made it to the edge of the camp grounds, bags in tote we were met with the rest of our troupe as well as our leader, Duster, who was busy trying to explain the directions to the camp grounds.

"You know, I've never actually gone camping before." Ness said to me, "we always just stay at hotels because my mom and dad don't like sleeping outside." he paused in thought, "Well, mom doesn't. Dad just says sleeping outside is for the homeless."

"Wow, that's... um..." I shook out the thought, feeling a bit too baffled at what Ness said to try and respond to it, "it's not that bad. It's just cold and everyone smells bad. Nothing you can't handle."

We walked over to the large tarp where everyone was putting down their bags and placed our stuff with the pile, joining the group in the back. After about five minutes we started walking, other counselors loading the luggage into a van to be delivered to us at the grounds.

"What do you think we'll be doing?" He asked.

"Probably just setting up tents and things and then eating dinner and going to sleep."

"No spooky campfire stories?" Ness said with disappointment.

"Well, maybe... I don't know. Probably? I mean this is summer camp after all."

"Sounds good." Ness smiled, "Hey I'm gonna go say hi to Duster, I'll catch up with you later, alright?" and with that, he was gone.

I took out my compass and focused the needle on the large N on the top of it. Looks like we're heading east. The path ahead seemed to be all dense brush and dry ground. No discernible features about the landscape, just lots of trees and lots of boring.

The sun was at full gaze up in the sky and I was suddenly glad that I had worn sunscreen today because otherwise I would've been beet red by now.  
All of the campers ahead of me were walking in pairs or groups of three, no stragglers except me, (not that I minded), talking calmly but happily to each other. I wondered if they became friends here or if they had already known each other before. Either way, everyone seemed to be having a good time. It must be the fresh mountain air that brings out the kindness in people. I'm pretty sure it did for me.  
We walked for about 30 minutes before Ness decided to slow down and walk with me in back again.

"Howdy." He said, tipping his hat.

"Hey. How's Duster?"

"Eh, he's alright. He's too nice to control this mob of guys so some of the other campers are directing the path. I tried helping out until I remembered I have a terrible sense of direction."

I snorted, "Same. I get lost back home all the time."

He hummed in agreement, looking around the landscape with a soft smile. "It's really beautiful out here, isn't it? We don't have any trees like these in Ohio."

"Yeah. We don't really have trees at all in LA." I laughed, "Oh, that reminds me." I exclaimed, "I've been meaning to ask you something."

Ness raised his eyebrows curiously

"If you and Ninten live in Ohio, why did you come to camp all the way in California? And a mediocre one like this no less."

Ness shrugged, "Well, my dad got a temporary fly-out to San Francisco for the summer from his work, so he decided to send my sister and I out here to 'experience the wonder of the outdoors'," Ness said making quote marks with his hands."We've only ever lived in the city so I was pretty excited when he told me, and I don't think it's too mediocre, I've met a lot of cool people."

"Oh. Same here about the living in the city thing. I mean, we have a cabin in Lake Tahoe that we go to sometimes and that's pretty quiet and naturey, but nothing like this." I gestured to the vast wilderness around us.

"Really? Tahoe? I'm jealous. It must be nice up there." Ness smiled.

"Yeah, it's really peaceful."

"Maybe I could go someday." Ness said wistfully.

"Well, our cabin is a rental if you're ever serious about it."

"Or we could go together."

I stopped walking and looked at him quizzically.

His eyes widened and he began to sputter, "or I mean, like, you could go and then like I could like, I mean, like different places or um it could be like, or wait what I meant was that-"

"That sounds nice." I said, cutting him off. Weirdo.

Ness stopped his rapid stuttering and broke out into a huge grin.

"Really?"

"Well," I paused, "I mean, we could get everyone, me you, Claus, Jeff, Poo, Ninten, we could hang out up there after camp. It could be a cool way of seeing everyone after it's over."

Ness' smile faltered for a moment, "Everyone. Yeah, that'd be cool. Not just like you and me. Like everyone. Sounds good."

I raised an eyebrow at his melancholy tone, (did I say something?), before continuing to walk with the rest of the group again. Except... they weren't there.

"Where did the group go?" I asked

Ness's looked around, surprised at my words, and finding nothing as well.

"We stopped for like one second, where the hell did they go?" I said, my voice raising in worry.

"Um," Ness paused, much more calm than me, "maybe they went over that bridge?" He pointed to an old wooden structure a few yards ahead of us, underneath a large grove.

In a moment of clarity I got out my compass and focused the needle. The bridge /was/ facing east...

"Yeah they probably did." I agreed and we began to walk towards the rope suspended structure.  
When we got to the first step on the bridge, I stopped. How many feet above the ground was it? All I could underneath was trees. What if it broke while we were walking? Surely the troupe didn't go this way. They wouldn't have us walk on this swinging liability, right?

"Do you want me to go first?" Ness said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Um.." I was hesitant to go at all but I nodded, my judgement clouding with fear of losing the group and ending up lost, "Yeah, you go ahead, I'll follow behind you."

"Okay." Ness brushed past me and took a tentative step onto the bridge, holding onto the rope grip that held it together. "Wow this is not as stable as I thought it would be." He shook himself out of his doubt and continued on making it about 3 steps before turning around and extending a hand to me. "You coming?"

"Y-yeah..." I shakily took his hand, my eyes never leaving my feet. One misstep felt like it might end my whole existence.

We made it about halfway across the bridge, still hand in hand, Ness making comments about how much easier this would be in a video game, before I finally looked past my feet and down into the trench below the bridge.  
My legs suddenly stopped, all my movements halted by fear, causing my hand and arm to pull against Ness', making him lose his balance and turn to look at me, startled.

"Dude what was that about?"

I couldn't speak or move. All I could see and focus on were the hundreds of feet below me, the trees were gone and replaced by a river that looked like it was miles from me, and the only separator between me and it, a flimsy wooden rope bridge. I was paralyzed and I felt like any moment I would fall, my body suddenly light as a feather, ready to be picked up by the slightest breeze.

"Dude? Lucas? Are you ok?"

What was he saying? I couldn't focus. All I could do was wish I was on solid ground, that I could lay down, sit down, be stable.

"Ok. It's alright. Don't worry. I've gotcha." Ness started to speak in a relaxed tone but let go of my hand, causing me to suddenly stiffen in fear. My last stable tie to another human being was severed.  
His hand was soon replaced with an arm around my shoulder and another hand intertwined with both of mine. Slowly he began to walk with me.

"There's only a little more. It's fine. It's alright. We'll be there soon." He said soothingly as we walked to the end of the bridge. My eyes were fixed on the boards below me still, but I managed to keep my feet moving, slowly, stiffly, but surely. Ness didn't let go of me until we were at least 10 feet away from the bridge on solid ground. I collapsed face first onto the dirt, absolutely relieved to have the earth beneath me again.  
He sat next to me, a calm smile on his face.

"I didn't know you were afraid of heights."

I groaned quietly into the ground, unable to speak, my mind clouded by a rush of adrenaline from the crossing.

"You should've told me, so is my dog King. I told you about King, right? When he was a puppy whenever I picked him up I would have to hold his paws or he would get scared he was gonna fall."

So that's how he knew to hold both of my hands.

"-nks" I mumbled into the dirt.

"Huh?"

"Thanks." I said, turning me head to look at him. "For that. I uh... I thought I would be fine. I didn't realize how steep it was."

Ness' eyebrows rose in surprise at my words and he scooted closer to me, "No no no no no don't thank me, I shouldn't have suggested we go on there. I wasn't thinking. I just didn't want us to get lost or separated from everyone else."

"I didn't either." I sat up and looked around, "speaking of which, did we find them?"

Ness shook his head. "Not yet, but there's only one path from here so I don't think it should be too long before we do."

Ness stood up and extended a hand to help me up get up, my legs still a bit wobbly.  
We started down the path ahead of us, a long walk down the mountain.

We traveled along that trail for a while. We did until the sun started setting and the trail became more and more dense. Suddenly, it wasn't a trail at all, just plants and rocks. We had no jackets and no phone, only my compass and Ness' backpack filled with god only knows what.

We kept walking, brushing away pine tree branches and mosquitoes, small talking to try and keep away the lingering thought that we both had.

We were lost.

"We're not _lost_."Ness said, "We're... off the grid."

"It's the same thing." I sighed, sitting on a moss covered rock. We were going in circles, everything looked the same, and the sun was almost completely down.

"Well... maybe we should try to find a way back to the camp instead of the rest of the group. They probably think that we just went back, right?" Ness said, sitting on a log across from me.

"...Do they even know we're gone?"

We both looked up at the orange and pink sky, as if the clouds held the answers. They must know we're gone. They have to.

"Maybe we should try to set up some kind of camp for tonight and go back tomorrow." Ness said, taking off his backpack, "I've got some stuff in here that we could use, probably."

Ness began rifling through his things, pulling out a yoyo, a post card, three cookies, and a large plush chicken.

"What's the chicken for?" I asked

"I was planning on selling it but... I don't know. I was told my teen years would be ruined unless I bought an egg and it came with this chicken so..."

I laughed. "Were your teen years ruined from such a weird buy, instead?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, "Not ruined. Actually pretty good besides that. Anyways, do you think we can use anything here?"

"No. This would be a lot better if we had our regular bags."

"Yeah."

We both sighed, looking up at the clouds once again.

"It's probably around 6" Ness said, "let's try and get somewhere where we can retrace our steps before it gets too dark."

"We've been heading east I think, pretty much this whole time" I said, searching around for my compass, "we should try to go west when we start walking back― damn, where the hell is my compass? I literally just had it."

"No, you dropped it when we were on the bridge." Ness said matter of factly.

"I did?" I said, puzzled.

"Yeah. Is it that important? I didn't think those things worked since we were so close to the mystery spot."

"Ness the mystery spot's just a tourist attraction, also we're not even that close to it." I said woefully. This was just getting worse and worse. "Let's just keep going and try to retrace our steps like you said."

Ness nodded and we began to walk in the same direction we came, identifying markers to the best of our abilities, but coming up short almost every time.

"Everything looks the same. How do squirrels remember where they buried their acorns in this maze of foliage?" I asked as we walked.

"Actually, a lot of the times they don't remember." Ness responded, "New trees tend to sprout far away from their parents thanks to that. Even the forest dwellers get lost here, I guess." He gave me a consolidating smile. How on earth he manages to stay positive in a situation like this...

"Hey. Do you hear that?" Ness asked.

"Hear what?"

"Listen." Ness gestured for me to put my hand to my ear. It sounded familiar. I had no idea what it was, but it sounded familiar at least.

"Come on, let's go check it out!" Ness said excitedly, running ahead and down the hill we were on.

"Ah fuck I do not have the right shoes for this" I mumbled under my breath, trying to keep up with him.

Ness burst out of the trees, me bumbling behind, slowly looking up from my own feet and path to see what the source of the noise was.

"I knew it!" Ness said, ecstatic, "a river! This is perfect!"

"Why?" I groaned. Here I was thinking it would be the group or a helicopter or something, you know, actually helpful.

"Well, because it'll lead us back to civilization, of course." Ness said, confidently.

"It will?"

"Well, yeah. Don't you watch man vs wild?"

"Ness is all of your knowledge based off of movies and TV?"

"Most... Of it." Ness said, sheepishly.

I looked up again, the sky was suddenly turning from grey to navy and the moon was starting to come out. At least we had a river, I guess.

"Lucas, come here, help me with this."

Ness beckoned me over to a tree with a hollow core at its roots, taking rocks out of it and putting in pine needles instead.

"What are you doing?" I asked

"I'm making us a shelter, of course. Look at how big this tree is, it's perfect. Bring some leaves and stuff over here with me."

I walked around and gathered some low leafy branches from neighboring trees, giving them to Ness to pad the hollow floor with. The space looked a little cramped but I guess it was better than sleeping on rocks.

After about 15 minutes of work, Ness and I deemed the space livable for one night and crawled in.  
It was more tight than I expected. My shoulder and side pressed up against Ness', and I found myself suddenly emabarassed at the close contact. I gave him a side glance, finding his face strangely even redder than mine, and averting his gaze. Weirdo.

It was quiet then. Neither of us saying a word, just sitting, absorbing each other's body heat and looking up at the star patched sky.  
Ness slowly put his arm around me, pulling me closer and getting rid of my instinctive movements to push away in this tight spot.

We stared up at the sky, illuminated by the ocean of stars, the world completely silent besides the sounds of the river. I felt something stir in my heart then. It steadily beat and I rested my head on Ness' shoulder. Somehow, this all felt right.

It was dark outside, save for the millions of twinkling lights in the sky. Claus wished he wasn't watching them alone.

"Hey Ninten, can you hear me?"

* * *

_**A/N: **hey everyone, I just want to apologize for not updating sooner, I've been so super busy with college apps and theatre and college auditions whoo it is just too much. Anyways, I just want to thank everyone who's read and who has been reading this story, especially all of those who have fav'd and reviewed, you're the best! I love opening my email to see new reviews posted, it makes my whole day! After February I should be able to get chapters out faster, so thank you for being patient._

_Until next chapter!_


	9. No in german

I wiped the trail of drool from my chin and opened my eyes to the morning sun. Looking out, I expected wood floors and walls, but what I saw instead was an expanse of forest as far as my eyes could reach.

Oh yeah, we got lost.

"Hey, look who's awake."

"Ness" I grumbled, "how long have you been up?"

"About 30 minutes, but you were sleeping so I didn't want to get up and wake you."

I rubbed my eyes, uncomfortable in the tight space of the hollow trunk, "Oh. Thanks, you could've, though, I probably would've slept through it."

"Well," Ness shrugged, "too late for that now. What's say we get going?"

He stepped out of the the tree, stretching, and offering me his hand. I took it and stood up, standing close to him.

It was so calm where we were, the river was babbling lightly beside us and the air held an elegant gray haze. In the daylight, this place was beautiful.

Ness flung his backpack over his shoulder and cast me a quick glance, giggling.

"Hey Lucas, you know you've really got crazy bed head."

Well, there goes that serenity.

I gasped in horror and threw my hands to my hair. I didn't even think about my bed head, god how embarrassing!

"It's cute." He grinned.

"It's _not_ cute." I said, offended and flustered, "you're cute."

What was meant as a biting insult was quickly twisted into an unintentional compliment. "Aww, you mean that?" he teased.

"yeah. I do." I spat back without thinking.

"Thanks" Ness grinned.

"Fuck off" I said, smiling at my own dumb slip up.

He laughed in apology, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Your hair doesn't look bad. Anyways, let's keep going along the river."

I nodded and we began to walk along the banks leaving our temporary shelter behind.

I gave one last glance at the hollow tree trunk. Despite my eagerness to get back to the camp and say goodbye to the forest, leaving this beautiful landscape was admittedly regrettable. Perhaps under different circumstances I could've appreciated it more.

But for all of the wonders of the wilderness, there was an equal amount of worries in my mind. How were we going to leave? What if they never found us? What if they did and we got kicked out for separating from the group? It was like poison on my mind.

I think, if it wasn't for Ness being here, I probably would've broken down by now.

It's strange how close Ness and I have become. I mean, when we first met I never even considered us becoming friends. He's loud and confident and... everything that, well, I'm not. I guess... I guess in some ways I held it against him. I didn't even give him a chance.

That was so unfair of me.

I'm glad it's not like that now. If any if this is by fate's hand, I feel infinitely lucky.

Especially last night under the stars, I felt like we were supposed to be there together, just appreciating the world and one another. I wonder if that was fate.

How serendipitous for happiness to blossom from such negativity.

I would've thanked him right then, thanked him for staying with me, for being my friend through all of this, despite how trying it might've been. But I stayed silent as we walked.

It wasn't the time for that, not then.

* * *

My feet ached by the time the sun was full in the sky and my stomach sounded more like a vuvuzela than an organ with all its incessant grumbling. I guess the 3 odd cookies Ness and I shared weren't enough to offset the hunger of walking for hours on end.

That same boy who so generously shared his sweets with me was walking a few feet away, feet sinking lightly into the mud underneath him. He didn't seem to notice, though, concentrated instead on fiddling with a thread from his shirt.

Ness turned his head in time to catch me staring and I looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry."

Ness shrugged it off, occupied with other thoughts.

As we walked, I started to catch quick glances at him, curious as to why he was being so quiet. It was unlike him.

Maybe he was thinking of how we were going to get out of this forest. It was strange, he almost looked like he was nervous.

A few minutes passed before he finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry."

I was ahead of him by then and didn't notice how far behind he had gotten. I turned and walked to him carefully. "what for?"

"For getting us lost." He said, his head down, avoiding me "And even more lost now. I'm-" he shifted his eyes, looking everywhere but at me "I thought I'd be able to find a way out of here but I didn't. I'm... really sorry."

I was a little taken aback by his apology, but I understood. I tend to shoulder the responsibility for things, too, and it's not fun. "Hey, dude, it's ok, it's not your fault."

"It is my fault!" He snapped, "I was stupid... and said that thing and then.. I made you cross the bridge and the river showed up and..." He trailed off, lowering the bill of his hat further over his eyes.

"Jesus, dude," I said, shocked, "it's ok." He was taking this way too hard.

There was a pause before Ness spoke up. He looked so dejected. It made my heart hurt.

"I miss home."

...Oh.

He shook his head like he was mad at himself for admitting it, "I'm sorry, I usually I call my mom every night and I couldn't this time and I really needed to ask her something and... I don't know, I'm sorry... I'm so tired." He pressed his palms into his eyes, wiping whatever tears were beginning to form in them away.

I put an arm around his shoulders, trying my best to console him.

Ness looked at me for a moment, and I finally got a look at his eyes. They were red and jaded, and I knew that he had been feeling this for a long time, longer than our time in the forest.

I smiled sadly at him, trying to show that I cared. He must've gotten the message because let go of whatever was holding him back and brought me into a desperate hug. I wrapped my arms around him in return and gave him whatever comfort I could.

He let go after a while, smiling quietly, gratefully. "Thanks Lucas. Sorry, I..." He sniffed, "didn't mean to start crying."

I gave him a tired grin, glad he was smiling again. "It's fine, dude. Let's just go sit down for a little bit, we're both probably exhausted."

Ness nodded and we trudged over to a small grove a few feet away.

It was quiet aside from the sounds of the river, the one constant we've had so far. If the tension wasn't so high, you could almost call it peaceful.

"I had a dream last night... You were in it." Ness said, breaking the silence, "I don't remember much about it, but I remember I was happy."

He looked down at his feet, his eyes shaded by the bill of his hat. "It's weird because when I woke up, I couldn't help but feel... strangely empty."

He paused for a second. "But then I looked over at you, and you were still there and there was something so nice about not being alone."

I understood. It's hard to be alone.

"Thank you for being my friend, Ness." I said.

He looked up at me in astonishment, his eyes still red and wide.

I could see tears forming in them again. "I never thanked you for... being so kind to me despite my coldness when we first met. I appreciate it. A lot." I continued.

Ness placed his hand on mine and smiled softly at me. He understood.

I threaded our fingers together and listened to the sounds of the river.

We sat there exhausted, together.

* * *

"Jeff, I don't know who else to turn to."

"Well, I don't know why you're turning to me," the blonde said, "I fix machines, not people."

"But you're smart, can't you at least try to help, somehow?" Claus asked. He was desperate to do something, anything to help Ninten.

"Look," Jeff sighed, putting down the radio he was fixing in irritation, "I can give you the phone number to one of my and Ninten's mutual friends, he'll probably have some answers for you. More than I will at least."

He scribbled a few numbers down on a notepad and ripped the page out, handing it to Claus.

Claus took it with dismay. Shit, he walked all the way here and this was all he got? A real miracle cure, right?

He shoved the note in his pocket begrudgingly. As shoddy as it was, this note was his only lead. Fuck, he couldn't protect anyone, could he?

"Oh," Jeff said, as Claus began to walk out, "The owner of the phone number's name is Loid..." Jeff picked up his broken radio again. "I figure I should probably let you know ahead of time. He may forget to mention it."

Claus quirked an eyebrow. That's a pretty weird thing to say. But it didn't matter. If he could help, that's what counted.

* * *

"Bark!"

What was that?

"Bark!"

I scowled at the sharp sound, turning towards the river to see what it was. To my surprise, _it_ was sitting a few yards in front of me with its tongue hanging out. A brown farm collie that looked... incredibly familiar.

"Potato!" Ness yelled loudly.

I looked at the collie again, disgruntled by Ness' yell. Potato... God was that... Wait...

I gasped, the realization finally clicking in. He was right! The creature sitting right in front of us was none other than the camps own farm dog.

Before we could think, or even notice the oddity of the collie sitting in the forest with us, it took off running. Right up the hill beside us and into the cover of the trees.

We scrambled up to follow it, the moment before us lost in favor of chasing the only opportunity we had to escape these woods.

We caught sight of it quickly, running as fast as our tired legs could carry us.

* * *

We'd been running for miles, I could tell Ness' body was starting to shut down, exhausted and over-exerted, horribly weak. But we couldn't stop now, not when we were so close.I kept hearing those words in my mind, my brain chanting "run." Over and over, as if we stopped, we'd die.

I tried desperately to encourage him. Telling him to keep moving, pushing him forward lightly when he slowed down, but I was fading fast as well. Even one night in the woods was enough to exhaust you to the point of questioning if you'd really survive another.

We ducked under trees, nearly missed tripping on rocks, Ness lost his backpack to a wayward branch, but we kept going until we finally lost sight of that dog.

Ness clamped a hand over his forehead and teetered to a stop.

I kept jogging a few feet before falling to my knees in surrender. The sky was pink again. It was evening.

I craned my neck to look back at Ness, who had joined me in falling to the ground.

"What should we do?" I wasn't sure who asked it, but I'm positive we were both thinking it. I turned again to look at the wilderness in front of me. There was a slope, covered in green grass and devoid of trees.

I stood up and walked over to Ness, offering him my hand. He took it with a tired smile and we started walking forward.

It felt like we had given up. We'd lost our chance. But we kept walking because there was nothing else to do.

Who would've thought such a playful morning could turn so bleak.

We climbed the slope, eyes scrunched to the bright orange sky above us.

Then we saw it.

Standing proud and tall, at the top of the slope was the camp farm. Potato sat calmly outside. Looks like the collie didn't ditch us after all.

Ness and I collapsed on the ground, laughing in relief. We were back. Finally, we had made it back.

* * *

"Alright campers, make your way back to your cabins immediately! We will be dropping off your bags in front of your cabins later tonight."

A distant voice woke me up from my slumber. When had I fallen asleep? I looked down at the dirt beneath me, and up at the deep pink sky ahead. I must've passed out outside the farm. I looked next to me, Ness had as well.

I nudged him awake and he smiled tiredly at me, yawning.

"Let's go." I said, standing up and offering my hand. My throat was dry and my voice was hoarse.

Ness took my hand and stood up next to me. We walked, dazed, to our cabin, the world somehow so far away.

I fumbled with the door handle, finally just pulling the whole thing off and pushing the door open. I turned on the light. It felt so artificial. Our room was a deep yellow and all I could pay attention to was how stale the air was in my lungs. Silently, Ness went to his bedside, taking out all the snacks he had and we shared them, trying hard not to fall asleep again.

We looked at each other and giggled. What a strange day.

When we finished, I turned off the light and we went to bed, this time, not in a tree.

* * *

Daybreak spelled loud screeching from the speaker over head and I groaned. The moment I'm able to think straight again and I have to deal with this shit.

Ness tossed away the pillow that was lying on his face to the floor, his action reflecting about the same feelings I had and he looked at me, hair tousled and a goofy smile on his face.

"Howdy."

I blinked at him a few times in a groggy haze as a greeting, and we laughed. It was good to be back.

"You wanna go back to sleep?" I asked.

"We're not allowed."

"You wanna do it anyways?"

Ness smiled challengingly at me. "Yes."

I chuckled and scooted down further into my sleeping bag for warmth. Ness reached for his pillow on the floor, his arm just a few inches too short to grab it. The last thing I saw before drifting off again was him falling onto the cold floor trying to get it.

* * *

'Went to get food, be back soon' the note read.

I brushed my hand through my wet hair. So that's where he was. I put the note down and toweled off my hair ruggedly. Why didn't Ness wait for me?

I decided not to think much of it and dried the rest of myself off. After 2 days, a shower, even a cold one, is a real refreshment.

I quickly styled my hair and got dressed, hoping to meet Ness wherever he was.

The Mess hall would probably be closed by now, but I figured that's where he went anyways.

I made it there in no time and, after checking for security and finding none, hopped up on a window sill in the back, slowly opening the connecting glass. I don't try to be a rule breaker usually, but I didn't have much of a choice. I wasn't just gonna sit around and starve to death, after all.

I jumped down onto the linoleum floor, taking care not to slip.

I didn't see Ness anywhere in the dimly lit room, but I tried to not let it get to me. He'd at least be at the cabin when I got back, right?

Letting it go for now, I scanned the room once more. My eyes were met with an array of cooking appliances and utilities, all state of the art and shiny as hell. This kitchen was surprisingly nice for such a run down camp.

I walked around the room until I found the fridge, opening it with a satisfying tug.

Inside was a stock hold of fresh ingredients. Everything on the food pyramid was somehow stored in that steel behemoth and I chuckled. How is it that with all of these prime ingredients, this camp manages to make food that's barely edible?

I grabbed a couple of eggs and some chives, seizing the opportunity to refresh my cooking skills, and whisked them all into a ceramic bowl. I turned the heat on the stove to medium and placed a pan on top of the blue fire, sprinkling it lightly with olive oil. This was definitely one of the things I missed being at camp.

And you know, I wasn't a half bad cook, either. If I was given a few ingredients and something that slightly resembled a recipe, and I could pretty much make whatever.

My favorite part about cooking, though, isn't the food that I create. It's that I get to have the whole kitchen space to myself. To dance, to sing, whatever I want, because when I'm in the kitchen, for some reason, I have no inhibitions.

I laid the eggs down on the pan, humming to the tune of some song I had heard before, tapping my toes against the linoleum floors. I flipped them over after a few minutes and filled the middle with cheese and avocado. I set it on a plate, lightly salting it with all of the flare of a food network star and turned the heat off the stove.

A perfect omelette, as usual.

* * *

Ness wasn't avoiding him. No no he was just uh, just... exploring other parts of the camp that Lucas didn't happen to be at right then. Yeah.

Ness sunk to the floor against the outside of the phone booth. Who was he kidding, he was definitely avoiding him.

Ness had finished his shower and gone to the mess hall, driven by nothing more than extreme hunger and impatience. While he was inside, he got his hands on a some cereal, consuming the whole box, dry, and at breakneck speed.

With his hunger satiated, (at least a bit), and food no longer the first thing on his mind, memories from the camping trip started to creep up in its place.

With each memory that came up, Ness inwardly cringed. He had said a lot of stuff without thinking, shit, he even cried in front of the other boy. He wanted to slap himself out of sheer embarrassment. He told him about his dream? The one where they... God dammit. Ness scratched his head, frustratedly through his cap. Lucas probably thought he was pathetic and gross after all that. Damn, he couldn't ever keep his mouth shut, could he?

He'd have to talk to him. Or, no. He couldn't. He'd just spill more embarrassing things without realizing it. He could just, maybe, uh...

Ness jumped at the sound of footsteps from outside and turned to see Lucas surveying the area. He shoved the cereal back into the cupboard as fast as he could and climbed up the eastern window, quickly making his escape. He couldn't be seen after all that, not yet, not while he was still so confused.

So here he was now, resting against the phone booth, cursing his inability to keep his mouth shut for 2 seconds and avoiding the very boy he trusted enough to cry in front of, for that exact reason.

He dropped 3 quarters into the coin slot with an empty metallic clang and picked up the receiver. He punched in the numbers for his home phone and waited patiently for the dull ringing from the machine to stop.

**click**

"_Hello?_"

"Hi mom."

"_Ness!_" Ness shoved the receiver away from his face, startled by his mother's screeching. "_Ness, why didn't you call me last night, are you ok?_"

"Yeah mom I'm fine I just got lost—"

"_You got lost?_" She yelled, cutting him off, he could hear the sounds of her putting on a coat hurriedly, "_I'm going down there right now and talking to those counselors._"

Ness choked in horror. He would love to see his mom, but the last thing he wanted was for her to storm down and pull him out of camp. "No! I got lost in uh, in..." _Come on Ness, think!_ "...in thought! Yup." he grinned. "I was just so busy pondering things that calling you accidentally slipped my mind."

Ness' mom paused putting on her coat and hummed suspiciously into the phone, Ness never forgot to call. But she decided to let it slide for now. Trusting your kid was an important thing after all. "_Alright... but since you haven't called me in 2 days, you're just gonna have to give me 2 days worth of details about camp. Honestly, sweetie, how are things going out there?_"

"Good." Ness said, happy with the change in topic, "Me and Lucas saw a dog earlier, that was nice. Um, what else..." He hummed thoughtfully, "they got red licorice in the gift shop, now, I'll need some more money from dad for that if he's alright with it, I just had some cereal with raisins in it which was surprising and unusual, I might be gay, um, the stars were really pretty here last night, —"

"_Wait, you might be what?_" Ness' mom interrupted.

"Did I say something?" Ness said, not realizing his slip up.

"_Ness, is there something you're not telling me?_"

"Is there—" He stopped suddenly. Oh no. He didn't say...

"_Ness, don't you hang up that receiver, we're talking about this._"

Oh fuck, yes he did.

Ness babbled into the phone, panic setting in as he searched frantically for some kind of escape. God damn his big mouth.

He began breathing fast, his heart pounding, eyes racing, looking for some way out, some way to—

**click**

He quickly placed the receiver back onto its hooks, his face one of quiet terror. That was one solution.

He stood there, petrified, before sprinting suddenly in the direction of Jeff's cabin.

_Jeff's smart, he'll know what to do._

"Jeff!" Ness yelled, slamming the door open and shut behind him, "I need your help."

Jeff shrieked at the sudden slam, radio falling to the ground. He whipped around, glaring at the perpetrator.

"Fucking Christ, Ness, knock much?"

"Sorry" Ness apologized half heartedly, "But I could really use your help."

"Usually, when people need help they don't rush in here and scare me half to death."

"Jeff, please, I'm sorry, I really need your help." Ness said, beginning to panic again.

Jeff sighed, still irritable, _Why did people keep interrupting him recently?_ "Look if it's about Ninten I already—" he stopped his speech when he got a closer look at Ness' face, completely warped with anguish and anxiety. "What the fuck happened to you?"

"I think I might be gay?" Ness said, startled by his own words.

Jeff's looked at him in complete shock, "I thought you had a crush on Paula!"

"I did! And now! I!" Ness shook his arms wildly, tugging at his hair, "I have no clue what's going on!"

"Why do you think you might be gay!?"

"I think I like Lucas!"

The volume level immediately dropped from a hundred to zero and Jeff gasped, which caused Ness to gasp back and throw a hand over his mouth. Could he never stay silent?!

"Why?" Jeff whispered in shock.

"I... I don't know," Ness said, "he's really attractive and I was just, we got lost in the forest and he was so nice and then I had that whole dream and then I started crying in front of him and he was so accepting about it and oh god Jeff I... I don't... I don't know what's going on." He said, sinking to the floor and crawling weakly to his friend.

Jeff patted Ness on the back, trying his best to be consolidating. "Damn, dude."

"Are you upset?" Ness asked, placing his face in his hands and looking at Jeff through his fingers.

Jeff scoffed. "Hell no. Ness you're one of my best friends, I could never be upset at you over something like this."

"So... it's fine?" Ness asked, lowering his hands cautiously.

"Fucking, of course it's fine." Jeff said, punching his arm lightly, "I'm glad you told me."

Ness laughed lightly in relief, flopping back onto the floor boards. He was tired and hungry and emotionally spent, but at least he didn't feel so freaked out anymore.

"So what do I do now?" He asked.

"Have you told anyone else?"

Ness frowned to himself, "My mom."

Jeff raised his eyebrows in surprise, "That's it? I'm surprised Ness, you usually have habit of spilling your secrets to everyone in a five mile radius." Ness rubbed his head, slightly embarrassed at how true that was, "What did your mom say?"

"I don't know... I hung up before she could say anything."

Jeff shrugged, knowing that wasn't really his business. "Well, what are you going to do now?"

Ness groaned and slouched over, putting his head and hands to the floor in front of him. "I don't know, that's why I came here!"

"Well, are you going to tell Lucas?"

"No! God no!" Ness screamed.

"Ok, calm down. How about your mom? Unless you told her that part, too."

Ness shook his head, groaning.

"Well, normally I'd tell you to go ask Poo, but he had to go out for 'spiritual training' and 'meditation' and he won't be back until tomorrow." Jeff huffed, making hand quotations for things Poo had said earlier. He'd been trying to distract himself but without his best friend there, the blonde was having a hard time staying optimistic. Plus with everyone going to his cabin for help... It was a frustrating couple of days.

"So that's why you're in such a bad mood." Ness teased.

"Yeah, it fucking is." Jeff said, too annoyed to try and cover it up.

"Sorry." He laughed, before cringing at the thought of his own situation, "Jeff, what am I gonna do? I can't just avoid Lucas forever."

"And you shouldn't." Jeff reprimanded, "he's still your friend, after all."

"What if I let it slip that I like him?"

"I wouldn't put it past you." Jeff gave a thoughtful hum before looking apologetically at Ness, "I don't have any answers for you. I've said it before, I'm good with machines, not people."

Ness groaned. Great. Just great.

* * *

The cabin was empty when I came back. I looked around in confusion.

Why was Ness still gone?

* * *

_**A/N:** god, i am so so so sorry about not updating this sooner, but the good news is, I'm going to college! UC specifically, and I'm really excited! Anyways, I'm updating this on the first day of summer break so hopefully that means way more frequent updates now that I have time to actually write, plus! I have the whole story planned out now! Nice_

_i just want to thank everyone that's kept up with all this and especially those who have reviewed, plus a big shoutout to the anon on tumblr who asked me to update this when Lucas was confirmed, without them this may have taken another month to get out OTL._

_PS: Instagram user sarahthemagicalgirl drew fanart for this story! It's awesome so go check it out! instagram p/ 0JKPUvraMQ/_


	10. you're a dime

I have like 2 hours to kill, let's see what I haven't done yet.

I trudged along aimlessly around the camp's outer path. The sun was high this afternoon, which created polka dots of light in between the tree leaves.

It was a nice day no doubt, but ironically now that I finally had time to myself, something I had craved since I got to camp, I felt very... lonely.

So I decided to visit the places that I hadn't seen here yet, making use of the time I had left in this camp.

First thing on my list was the small baseball field near the back of the campus.

I had promised Ness I would teach him how to play baseball a while ago but I guess we never got around to it...

I hadn't seen Ness, like, at all since the last time we were in the cabin together. Which felt super weird because how long have we been at camp for? A month? 5 weeks?And in the past few, me and him have been basically joined at the hip, whether we liked it or not.

And you know, as I walk through this path alone, I have to say I liked it a lot more than not.

Ness was a good friend and maybe I was overreacting, but not seeing or hearing anything from him for a whole day and a half after being together so much... It was just kinda weird and it disrupted the hell out of my routine.

Did I do something to him? Say something?

Fuck. I tilted my head to the sky and sighed. Social problems, my true weakness.

I climbed up the hill the path was on, reaching the baseball field in no time and opening the gate. I decided not to think too hard about my problems right now. I was busy exploring.

The field overall was pretty normal, grass, bleachers, the works. Nothing to gawk at but nothing to sneeze at either. I weaved through the pillars under the bleachers, trying to find anything unusual or interesting within this bland landscape. Something to take my mind off of life for a while.  
My answer came in the form of a tiny patch of succulent plants on the right side of the field, calmly sitting in the shade.

I crouched down in front of them, inspecting each one. They were such an oddity on here, someone must have planted them. But who would put them there? Why? I traced my finger along the gravel they were buried in, contemplating these tiny succulents existence.  
Camp was temporary. Why would someone take the time to plant these here knowing that? Knowing that they'd just have to leave them...

I stood up, brushing the dirt off my hands, mind back to the vast world once again.

The sky was so blue today.

* * *

Ness walked along the outside path on the campus, humming sad songs to himself.

He thought avoiding Lucas would make him feel better. So far, it had been counterproductive.

Truth be told, he really wanted to see the other boy― it was so weird being away from him for so long. Ness wanted to spend time with him. Laugh with him. Get lost in the forest with him. But he couldn't.  
Because Ness didn't trust himself.  
And he knew he was right not to trust himself.

So he walked along this path, as blue as the sky.

* * *

(Ninten is... Fragile. And I mean that in the most unconventional way because he could absolutely kick my ass if he wanted to. He's just built on a weak constitution and it messes him up sometimes.)

"Fragile...?" Claus said to himself. He knew it was true but hearing someone else say it was weird. He didn't expect anyone else to really be able to see that.  
That was ridiculous of course, clearly Ninten had other friends outside of camp but... Well, he couldn't help it. Claus was a protective guy. Ninten was like a brother to him. Or well, maybe brother wasn't the right word but... Close like that. Just guys being dudes. Good friends.

The redhead frowned, he'd have to think of a term to describe them later. Soul...bros? He'd figure it out.

Claus read the text carefully. He'd been talking to this Loid character for far too long now and just finally was he able to get him on topic and talking about things other than chemistry and magic the gathering.

These are what Claus had found out about the boy so far: 1. he's not one to trust people. Claus had to give Loid a myriad of details and proof that he wasn't just a bully aiming to mess with him before the guy would even give Claus the time of day. And 2. He was easily distracted. Actually, scratch that. Easily distracted is an understatement. Loid latched on to anything and everything he read, which made conversation with him fucking impossible and it was burning Claus to the last strand of his patience just to text with him.

So this message which was finally on topic and gave some insight into Ninten's condition was something that Claus wasn't gonna just let slip through his fingers.

He picked up his phone and contemplated the appropriate response.

(he's been out for a few days. What should I do? Jeff says you might know. I'm really worried about him.)

Not included in the text were lines such as (I'm pulling my fucking hair out! I'm so worried, holy shit I've known this boy for like a month, I've never cared this much. What do I do? God dammit do I punch or hug him awake? Why am I so fucking useless?)

Claus sent the original text, nodding to himself that he could really use a therapist right now. Or a punching bag. Or some cake.

But more than anything, he really just wanted Ninten to wake up.

His phone buzzed. Flipping it open he read the other's message. (Oh yeah, Jeff's there! Did I tell you he and I are Magic buddies? He's better than he lets on but not as good as me, not that I'm trying to brag or anything.)

Claus groaned and slapped his forehead. This fucking kid...

He frustratedly typed up another response, trying to be as clear and curt as possible.

(I see. Anyway, Ninten has been passed out for a few days. What should I do?) hopefully this text didn't leave a margin for distraction like his other one.

The phone buzzed and Claus opened the text hesitantly.

(Oh. Yeah, he gets like that sometimes. Better to just wait it out and let him sleep. Ana and I call it his 'hibernation'. It's never lasted too long, just let him be and hope for the best.)

So this was... normal for Ninten? Claus sighed in half relief and half disappointment. On he bright side, if this has happened before, Ninten would probably recover ok. On the down side though, Loid's response was no different from everyone else's. Just wait it out. There's nothing you can do.

Claus locked his phone and laid down on his bed, turning to face Ninten across the room.

No, screw that, he'd think of something. Surely...

* * *

A distraction, that's what he needed. What did he usually do in situations like this? Ness listed the things out on his fingers. Play video games, play guitar, eat copious amounts of pringles...

He let out a frustrated hum. Getting his guitar meant going back to the cabin, and so did getting his gameboy, which also meant maybe seeing Lucas, which basically meant those 2 were out.

He groaned, walking aimlessly down a dirt path. The part that was the worst about it, was that seeing Lucas and playing gameboy with him sounded fucking _awesome_.  
But Ness knew better, so he kept moving.

That left option three. They didn't have Pringles here, but they had a gift shop with all kinds of junk, and that would do for now.

The capped boy started up the opposite way on the path, crossing through the back of the camp and eventually making his way to a small, secluded area near the entrance. The place felt different from the rest of the campus. More relaxed, and yet more melancholy. It made him feel oddly nostalgic.

At the left end of it sat a radio tower, presumably what staff used to issue announcements through the speakers around the camp, and on the other end ahead was a small swimming pool, only available to use on Fridays. Ness had always wanted to go in it but never got the chance. Near the back, where the grass met the line of forest, was a small and dusty building, who's exterior resembled a quiet storefront. Exactly what Ness was looking for.

He walked up to it, tired from his own emotions, and sat on one of the plush stools in front of the window.

"What'll it be?" A voice rang from inside.

He rested his elbows against the bar-like windowsill, "I don't know if I have enough credit."

"Your dad called recently and added more. You've got more than enough." The voice responded. Ness' father was absolutely loaded. He wasn't surprised that he'd sent him more money.

"Then... Then I'll take all the sweet tarts you have."

The voice laughed, "What's the matter? Something got you down?"

Ness grumbled, "I don't want to talk about it."

"And I don't want to pry. All the sweet tarts you said? Coming right up."

* * *

I walked up to Claus' cabin and knocked on the door. Even if he was in a shit mood, I needed to talk to somebody before I spiraled into some deep anxiety over Ness.

He opened it, greeting me nonchalantly and I went inside. His eyes looked tired, I guess things hadn't been going well.

"Yo."

"Hey." I said, sitting down on his bed. He sat on the edge of Ninten's, waiting for me to say something, explain why I had shown up maybe, but I asked about Ninten instead. His condition was more important right now than my trivial problems.

"Any progress?" I asked.

Claus laughed bitterly. "Barely. His friend that was supposed to help me figure something out was virtually useless. Right now I just have to wait and hope for a miracle."

"Harsh..." I said, staring at Ninten's hand, drooping lazily off the bed. Poor guy...

"What about you? You seem kind of distressed." Claus asked.

"Me?" I looked up at him, eyebrows raised. How perceptive. "Oh, I don't know. I think maybe Ness might be mad at me or something."

"Why would he be mad at you?"

I shrugged. I had no concrete answers, at least, nothing worth saying.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." He responded, "Ness seems like a chode anyways."

I laughed incredulously, "he is not, and..." I stopped, heart sinking slightly at my own thoughts. "and that's why it's bugging me. I don't want to mess anything up with him, I really like him."

"Well if it's not broken, don't fix it." Claus responded, "you have a knack for making things a bigger deal than they really are. If you really think something's actually wrong, you should talk to him. Otherwise, don't worry about it. I mean, it can't be too bad, how long has this been going on between you guys?"

I scratched my neck. "I don't know, a day and a half?"

Claus burst out laughing, throwing his hands up. "Oh god, a whole 30 hours. How will you ever fix this trouble in paradise?"

I looked at him, annoyed, but still, I was happy to see him laugh. The moment my brother loses his playfulness is the day the world stops spinning.

He calmed down, wiping a tear from his eye and smiled at me. "You don't see it yet, Lucas, but everyone here loves you. If things are meant to work out, they will."

I gave him a half hearted grin, "I guess so."

* * *

I left the cabin after a while, emotions and fears clouding all of my thoughts.

I needed another distraction. If this inner turmoil kept up, I'd end up hiding under a bed for the rest of the summer with anxiety.

I decided to place my focus on exploring again, walking up the hill, and towards the unknown.

It almost felt like I was back at the start of camp, but this time mine and Ness' roles were switched, and he was the one avoiding me. The thought was unbearable.

The leaves on the hill tried to crunch under my feet, but it seemed they were just fresh enough to bend rather than break under the pressure. I felt cheated, not even allowed the satisfaction of crushing leaves today.

A ringing from the overhead speakers signaled that dinner was being served, but I ignored it. I wasn't hungry and, I wouldn't admit it, but I was afraid of seeing Ness there. I didn't want to make things worse, since, as it was, I didn't even know how to make things better.

A single pair of footsteps walked quietly near me and I whipped around, startled by the close sound.

"Woah, sorry, didn't mean to spook you." The owner of the footsteps said, holding up his hands.  
It was counselor Duster, on what seemed to be his break.

He leaned back against the back of a cabin, pulling out a cigarette and placing it between his lips.  
"You don't mind if I smoke here do you? I'm only allowed to do it during meal times." He was surrounded by an aura of nonchalance that calmed me down instantly. I felt myself relax into it, leaning against the tree next to me and facing him.

I shook my head, "I don't mind."

The sky above took on a light grey, and fog was beginning to form along the ground. The cold air tickled my arms and I took a deep breath, feeling it hang in my lungs, the tension somehow draining from my body.

Duster flicked the lighter on, holding it close to the cigarette in his mouth and grabbing my attention. "Sorry we haven't been doing much in the way of activities lately. Someone lost the schedule and the head of the camp won't let us make a new one. Seems stupid but I guess this means everyone gets a break, right?"

"Yeah. It's fine." I replied, "I'm still tired after the camping trip."

We stood comfortably amongst the fog and trees, feeling the stillness of it all. I closed my eyes, trying to fade into the warm grey atmosphere we had created.

"I hate to ruin the serenity of this moment but I guess it's sort of my responsibility to ask why you're not at dinner right now." Duster said curiously.

"A few reasons..." I said, opening my eyes but staring at the ground beneath me. I was embarrassed to answer. I paused for a moment before looking at him with questioning force. "Duster, do you think it's worth it to plant a garden here?"

He raised his eyebrows. "A garden? What do you mean?"

"Someone planted a succulent garden near the bleachers on the baseball field. Do you think it was worth it for them to plant them, even if they'll never see them again?"

Duster turned his view to the sky, taking long drags of smoke in thought.

"Well, who says they're never going to see them again?"

I frowned slightly, trying to take in his answer.

"Lucas," he said, interrupting my thoughts, "where were you and Ness during the camping trip?"

My eyes widened in shock, he noticed?

His stern look quickly melted into a calm one once again and he shrugged, "sorry, I'm just curious. I saw you guys like once at the beginning and then not at all. How did you disappear like that?"

I scratched the back of my neck, relieved that he wasn't mad, "we sort of accidentally took an alternate route..."

The counselor grinned lightly, putting out his cigarette on the dirt. "I'm glad you're alright then." He pushed off the building and started walking along the top of the slope before turning to me again.

"I'm going to go see nurse K, you can join me if you want."

Part of me was afraid to accept, worried that we wouldn't be able to keep up the comfortable atmosphere any longer if I agreed, but the other part of me, which really didn't want to be alone right then, won the battle and I nodded. I would much rather hang out with Duster than go back and wallow in paranoid agony by myself.

We walked to the top of the hill together, making light conversation and going through all sorts of strange paths before finally stopping in front of a small, cold building. Claus had been here before, him and Ninten, but this was my first visit to the nurse and I didn't quite know what to expect.

Duster knocked on the door, opening it slowly after hearing a muffled "come in!" from inside. I followed him in and was met with a cold and cramped, and yet friendly office, headed by a pink haired nurse with fighting gloves.

She looked at me conspicuously. "And this would be?"

"This is Lucas," Duster said, introducing me with a pat on the shoulder. "He's in my troupe."

"Hi" I squeaked. Oof, not a good way to start this. Meeting new people never gets any easier.

I blushed, embarrassed, but she didn't seem to notice or mind, putting a hand out for me to shake. "Oh, you're Claus' brother right? Yeah, yeah, of course! Nice to meet you, I'm Kumatora. Or nurse K, or whatever. I'm not picky when it comes to names."

I shook her hand and smiled, she had such a tough look but she somehow seemed so familiar. Being with her and Duster felt so natural.

"That reminds me," she said, "I think I may have found the solution to Ninten's little sleeping spell if you wanna let your brother know." She swiveled around in her chair, grabbing a few folders from her desk, "tell him I'll be there tomorrow to try it out. I have a good feeling about this one."

I raised my eyebrows excitedly. I'm sure he'd be happy to hear it. "No problem." I said.

The three of us spent the rest of the evening chatting. We didn't talk about anything important or deep, but spending time just talking and hanging out with them was just what I needed. By the time I had to leave, I didn't even notice that the sun had already set.

Kumatora gave me a box of cookies to make up for missing dinner and I left the tiny office, her and Duster seeing me off to make sure I was safe on the way back.

I walked down the hill, the soft orange light of the moon reflecting my own heart.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ _*me, grabbing my own hand, wrestling it down as i try to proof read the chapter yet again* you have to post it- yOU HAVE TO POST IT SOMETIME_

_anyways, I re-read your guy's latest reviews and they made me so happy that I spent my night proofing this chapter for the final time so i could post it today. I really really appreciate them and I know it's a slow chapter this time but I hope you all liked it regardless! See you all next chapter!_


	11. 7-11 but without the seven

At 4am Claus' phone lit up with a text.

"What the fuck" he whispered to himself. Who was awake right now?

He grabbed his phone from the side of the bed and checked the sender. Loid? Does the kid not sleep or something? Why.. at 4 am..

(hey how long have you known Ninten for?)

Claus rubbed his eyes, (I told you, like a month) was the question so important it needed to be asked in the dead of night?

(oh. OK thanks)

Wait, no, he did not just wake Claus up at 4 am for that. why do you ask? Also why are you awake so late?

(I was just in a magic tournament and it was playing in a different time zone. I got 3rd place!)

Ah, this fucking kid. Claus should've expected him to only answer half the question.

(cool. Why did you ask me that before?)

(I was curious. You seem pretty focused on getting him better if you went all the way to texting me. I wanted to know if you guys were childhood friends or something)

that was literally one of the things he told him... (oh. Yeah no. But we're good friends anyways.)

Loid didn't send anything back after that which left Claus to stew. It shouldn't bug him but...

Why did he care so much?

He'd barely even left the cabin, even though it didn't really make a difference whether he stayed or went out. He was just concerned, he wanted to be there just in case.

But it made no sense, he'd known Ninten for almost no time, less time than any other friend.

Ninten was different though. There was something about him, he fit with Claus. They didn't need that time to break down walls like other people. Claus kind of felt like they were made to be friends.

Not friends, soul friends. Like soul mates but bros.

That was lame. Claus frowned. He needed more time to figure out the right thing to call them.

Claus had been staring into the darkness of the room long enough that small details in the furniture were beginning to become clear.

His bags were in the corner, lumped together haphazardly. On the other side, he saw the curve of Ninten's profile against his pillow.

Claus felt his chest ache, and he closed his eyes.

He'd figure out what to call them eventually.

* * *

By the time Ness showed up to the cabin I was already in bed, about to flip the light switch and sleep.

When he came in, the air tensed and I wished that I had had the good sense to go to sleep even five minutes earlier.

Unfortunately that didn't happen, and I was forced to wait in frigid silence as he got into bed.

I flicked the lights off and laid down. How did it ever get this bad?

What happened?

* * *

Oooh he fucked up. That was all Ness could think in the dark of that room with Lucas sleeping in the next bed over. He fucked up real bad.

But it was unavoidable, right?

Under no circumstances was he allowed to blurt anything out.

But this was God awful. This tension, how was he supposed to live like this? More importantly, how was Lucas supposed to?

Lucas. Fuck, he must be so confused. Ness didn't know what to do.

Maybe he'd understand. Hopefully he would.

* * *

Claus was awoken by a loud knock on his door followed by some incoherent yelling that would probably not be incoherent had he been any more awake. Unfortunately, he was still about 80% asleep. If he had been more alert he would've heard nurse K knocking on his door and perhaps gotten up.

Because Claus did not hear this, he went back to sleep.

So she broke down his door.

"Woah, what the fuck?!" Claus yelled, shooting out of bed. "What the hell? What?! Why?!"

"Calm down with the hysteria or you'll pass out. Can't have another one of you on my hands" nurse K said.

Claus stood there stunned. Too early for this. No matter what time it was, it was too early for this.

"Don't you work here? Can you just do that?" Claus yelled.

Kumatora ignored him in favor of walking towards Ninten.

"Well, this might work" she said, "or it might not. If that's the case, sorry kid."

Claus turned in time to see her wind her arm back. No way, she wasn't really gonna-

"It's time to wake up, Ninten!"

And she punched him in the face.

Claus stood there stunned. Time stopped and the world held itself in terrified silence.

Until,

"Ow. Lame."

Ninten sat up, hair messy and with a deadpan scowl on his face. With a hand pressed to his cheek he looked at Nurse K and then at Claus and all around the cabin.

"What happened to our door?"

Claus' mind was blank. Time had just barely sped up and his feet moved forward on their own.

Eventually he made it to Ninten's bedside, hooked his arms around the other boy, and hugged him with a deep, relieved sigh.

Finally.

* * *

This is the first time I've eaten breakfast alone here.

It's weird. I feel kind of pathetic. Everyone else is sitting with their friends and I'm just at some table by myself. This just in, Lucas is a loser who eats toast alone.

I guess I should be relieved. When I woke up this morning Ness was already gone. No weird morning silence.

But I wasn't expecting nobody to show up for breakfast. Fuck was that my fault?

I groaned, what did I do? What the fuck?!

I bit into my toast and simultaneously my tongue which seemed to be my queue to end breakfast. Today was off to one hell of a start.

I decided to go talk to Claus. At least it'd give me somewhere to go besides my cabin. Plus talking to him might help alleviate some of this frustration and confusion.

* * *

When I walked up to his cabin the first thing I noticed was that the door was open.

Well that's not quite right, more like it was.. completely gone.

"Uh..." I said, not taking my eyes off the door frame "what-"

But when I looked inside, all of my questions disappeared.

"Ninten!"

"Sup dude" he smiled.

I sent Claus a happy glance as I walked to Ninten's bedside. "You're alive! Long time no see."

"Yeah. Didn't realize I died. Crazy world."

"Man I'm so glad you're ok, everyone's been so worried about you."

Ninten gave me a look of gratitude before sending a shit eating grin Claus' way.

"Some of you more than the others." He snickered and Claus rolled his eyes.

I smiled. It was nice to have him back. A weight I didn't even know had been there was lifted off my shoulders. "Thank god you woke up, I thought they might send you home if you stayed like that for much longer."

Without warning the atmosphere tensed and Ninten's grin turned into a tight lipped smile.

"About that..." he began,

"Fuck, this is so ridiculous." Claus bit. I frowned, that didn't sound good.

"He's getting sent home anyways." Claus spat, glaring at the floor.

I paused. "But that doesn't make any sense..."

Claus laughed bitterly and crossed his arms. "Yeah, it doesn't."

Ninten interjected with a cough. "Basically... they don't think I should stay here if I can't do camp activities. I was told I needed to prove I was fine somehow, but my asthma keeps me from running long distances and there's not much else I can do." He explained.

"Nurse K said that? But she's so cool-"

"No, she thinks I should be allowed to stay. It's the head of the camp that thinks otherwise." Ninten replied.

"That fucking blows"

"Yeah, it's ridiculous... I should go kick his ass" Claus said, standing up.

"No, dude I don't want you getting kicked out too" Ninten said.

Claus paused for a moment and reluctantly sat down. Anger contained to a low boil for now.

"Is there anything else you can do?" I asked. "Maybe like a relaxed game of tennis or some other sport?"

Ninten laughed. "No tennis courts here. I can't think of much else that's got one on one competition either."

"What about a team sport?" I asked.

Claus perked up at that. "Yeah, Ninten you're like amazing at baseball, right? What about that?"

Ninten bit back a smile "Well, I wouldn't say amazing... but no, you gotta have at least 9 players, which we don't."

Claus slumped back down, mirroring a disappointed sludge puddle in some ways.

"Is there anything that doesn't require a field?" I asked.

"What, like mud wrestling?" Ninten smirked.

I chuckled, "No, like... uh... three legged race and pie eating and stuff."

"Those are some intense sports" Claus said sarcastically.

"How about capture the flag." I huffed. Claus loved that game.

I expected some kind of snarky comeback, but he paused, gave me a contemplative look, and then glanced at a curious Ninten.

Grin building ever so steadily, he announced, "That's perfect."

Claus had flames in his eyes and I got war flashbacks of every capture the flag game we'd ever played. Every terrible game.

I had awoken a beast.

* * *

"So here's what we're gonna do."

Claus smacked a hand against the wall, covered top to bottom in strategic text that he probably shouldn't have written in permanent marker. Oh well, he didn't have a door, may as well go the extra mile.

We all sat on the floor in front of him, me, Jeff, Poo, and Ness, with Ninten on his bed.

It was sort of nice to have everyone together again now that Ninten was awake. But it was also awkward with Ness here, though it seemed like I was the only one that felt it.

"What we're gonna do" Claus inhaled, "is win."

Jeff started to raise his hand but Claus stopped him midway.

"What? You ask. Do I mean by that? I mean were gonna bear down. Get mean. Break some bones and take some names."

Jeff began to raise his hand again but lowered it out of better judgment.

"Capture the flag." Claus announced, as if it was a surprise at this point. "I've never lost a game in my life and I don't plan to now."

"I don't totally get how this is going to prove Ninten's ok" Ness said.

"That's the point. All of us will get so good at it, that Ninten doesn't have to do anything. He'll be allowed to stay here without even trying."

"Will they even allow team sports? Also who are we going to play against?" Ness argued.

"I will talk to the head myself. As for opposing team members, I'm planning on doing some scouting for the absolute weakest people here. What I need is full cooperation from all of you."

"I'd be happy to help. Now that I'm back for good I'll be able to play whenever." Poo said, serious as usual.

"Yeah, I'm not amazing at physical activities but I'm decent at strategy. I can play." Jeff said.

Ness and I agreed as well and Claus turned to look at Ninten.

He tilted his cap down and gave a shy smile, "How could I refuse?"

* * *

A/N: im so sorry, I love you all, I won't keep you waiting for a half a year in between chapters again. You've read this much, you deserve an ending to this fic and I promise you'll get one. Your reviews are really nice and they do encourage me, I'm just a piece of shit and I never remember to write at times when I can actually do it. Also I'm thinking of making chapters shorter so I can update more frequently, hope y'all don't mind.


	12. Pre-teen

*knock knock*

"Come in"

Claus opened the door more hesitant that he would like to admit. The camp head was intimidating from afar, but up close, Claus wasn't even sure what to expect.

He stepped inside and cleared his throat. The head peered above his newspaper, eyes laced with suspicion.

"What is it, boy?" he half asked, half yelled.

Claus stiffened. "Um, well... I was uh.."

"No mumbling, be clear!"

Claus jumped before relaxing his posture in protest. There was no need to be a dick.

"I'm here to formally request a challenge." Claus said.

The man folded his paper and placed it neatly on his desk.

"And what is this challenge, boy?"

Could he stop calling him boy? Ugh. "I want to request a game of capture the flag to prove Ninten is able to stay in camp"

"No. He either runs a mile or he leaves."

Shit. That's not what Claus wanted to hear.  
"How about we make it a bet then? If my team loses, I'll leave too. Probably save you a whole lot of money to have 2 kids out for the rest of summer."

"No."

"Then my whole team."

He quirked an eyebrow at this. Oh God, what was Claus doing? He didn't have the right to bet all of their stays on this.

"Well alright then."

Claus' mind spun, rattled by his own words, but he kept going. Driven by his selfish desires to keep Ninten in camp. "I have a list of my team members and our rival team. Everyone's already agreed to play-"

"Now hold on. You don't think I'm going to let you pick your opposing team?"

His heart stopped. The team he chose already agreed to lose. He had everything all planned out.

"I'll be picking who you play against."

Fuck.

"But I already-"

"No buts kid, you agreed"

He opened his mouth to protest but Claus knew it was futile, settling to glare at him instead.  
What a despicable human. Why is he the one running this camp?

"Fine."

Claus slammed the door on his way out.

5 hours later an envelope slipped under his (now fixed) door.

He was sitting on Ninten's bed with him when they saw it. The two of them read it together.

'Your game is tomorrow at 11am. To match your team, you'll be playing against 6 boys of my choosing. They will remain unnamed in case you try to coerce them somehow. They have skin that's tough as nails.  
Good luck, you'll need it.'

Ninten scratched his head. "I can't believe a 50 year old man is trying to shit talk a bunch of teenagers"

Claus laughed but finished it with a sigh.

"Tomorrow... I don't know how were gonna win a game we can't practice for."

Ninten leaned forward and rested his chin against Claus' shoulder.

Claus continued, "I don't know, I just... I trust us but this is so risky. If we lose... everyone will have to leave."

"Nah, I'm sure we could get legal with it if worse comes to worse." Ninten smirked.

"Right. Like anyone's gonna do that." Claus groaned, pounding a fist against the matress. "God! This sucks! I don't want you to leave!"

Ninten dropped his forehead to Claus' shoulder and quietly trailed his fingers atop Claus' curled hand.

He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. "I really don't wanna go either."

* * *

The day of the match came sooner than Claus wanted and it weighed down on him like an omen.

Or maybe it was more like an anvil racing down to snap his spine in two.

Either way, it wasn't a good feeling.

When he sat up that morning Ninten was already awake, staring into space out a small window in their cabin. It was dusty, and it reflected in the light. Ninten's hair was messy, and his blankets mussed. He turned to Claus in the silence and gave him a small smile.

Claus wanted to smile back, but his heart clenched at the simple thought that stuck in his head: this might be gone soon.

"Hey. Let me give you my phone number" Ninten said.

Claus grabbed his phone from his pillow and Ninten moved to his bed to type it in.  
Their legs touched when Ninten sat down and a shiver ran up Claus' spine.

He peered over Ninten's shoulder at his phone but was caught by surprise when Ninten brought it up and took a picture of the two of them. Their hair was messy and their eyes tired but Claus couldn't help leaning into Ninten with quiet joy. Even if he left Claus would never have to forget his face now.

He set it as Ninten's contact photo and the two of them got ready in a bittersweet silence.

When they left, everyone was already waiting outside their cabin. Ness looked positively rabid with energy, Jeff was tapping his foot absent-mindedly, and Poo looked as serious as ever. Claus turned his brother with worry but Lucas could only muster a sympathetic frown. No one knew what was going to happen, that much was sure.  
Ninten joined them first and with a little hesitation Claus followed.

He could trust them today. He had to.

* * *

The field wasn't so much of a field as it was a forest on a hill. The ground was covered in wet leaves and sticks and hundreds of evergreen and eucalyptus trees created a canopy that blocked out what little sun was out that day.

Claus' heart was racing a mile a minute by the time they'd reached the top of the hill.  
He breathed deeply and steeled himself. It was fine. It was going to be fine.

As if on queue, the head of the camp walked to the middle of the area, followed by a battalion of rowdy looking recruits who stood opposite their team.

The head scanned them both and then planted the flags on either side of him.

"Teams, introduce yourselves."

The first to step up were three dirty looking boys from the opposing team. They looked like triplets and walked as if they were attatched at the hip. Simultaneously they pointed a thumb at themselves.

"We're the Mondo brothers. We're the third best on this team so you better watch out."

Claus scratched his neck. He didn't prepare a shit talking speech. He didn't even know he was supposed to.  
Also, what kind of shit talking was that? Didn't even make sense.

The next one to go up was a red haired guy with a peace sign necklace and a pair of really retro thick rim glasses. He had a megaphone in hand (was that allowed?) And walked with a kind of slink.

"Hey, I'm not really about trash talking, I'm just here to have a good friendly competition."

Claus eyed him. He wasn't about to take anyone on the other team lightly, regardless of what they say.

The fifth member was.. yikes. Was he crawling?  
He... crawled up to the others ahead with a frown and stared at the damp leaves. He traced his finger around them in a show of self pity.

"It doesn't matter who I am. Life is but a moment, a meaningless grain of sand..."

Claus' eye twitched. This team was just getting stranger and stranger. Maybe he should be grateful the camp head picked all these weirdos. They didn't seem very strong at least.

But when the final opposer stepped up, Claus swallowed his words.

Dont get him wrong, the boy didnt look strong. He was short, fat. But it was the way he carried himself. Claus almost thought it felt familiar.  
For the first time so far, he felt intimidated.

"Porky Minch. I've seen enough of you to know all you losers are going down."

What an annoying voice. Claus frowned. He couldn't decide if this guy was some annoying brat or someone to take seriously.

He huffed. Better safe than sorry.

"Now you!" The camp head shouted, "introduce yourselves."

Ness practically ran forward, bursting with excitement.

"I'm Ness, I like dogs and guitar and steak, and you better watch out cause I lift weights and I'm strong enough to lift a car."

"You don't lift weights, Ness, don't give them a reason to pick a fight with you." Poo said.

Ness looked gut punched. "They didn't know that until- you can't just-" he babbled, trying to save his act.

"This is Jeff and I am Poo, we look forward to a fair match." The other boy said stepping forward to Ness' position.

Jeff waved and Poo dragged Ness with him back in line, the capped boy still babbling in frustration.

Lucas went up next, scratching the back of his neck shyly.

"I'm Lucas."

And went back.

Eloquent, Claus thought. At least his brother was straight forward.

Ninten took a slight step forward, not as much as everyone else and brushed a hand through his hair.

"Man... I'm just here so I don't get fined."

Claus tried to contain a laugh, and failed, the burst cutting through the silence and Ninten smirked. Fuckin Ninten, making him laugh even now.

The camp head scowled at the two of them but Claus waved his hand in apology as he calmed down.

Eventually he stepped forward too.

"I'm Claus." He looked the camp head right in the eye, "and you're going to regret this"

With an unreadable expression the head took out a starter pistol and pulled the trigger.

Both teams darted for their flags, snatching them and shooting down either side of the hill to get them to their base.

Fuck, Claus thought, having this game happen on a hill makes it much more difficult to figure out their enemies strategy. Plus they weren't allowed to hide their flags. All they could do was protect them in the open. Fuck.

When five minutes passed, they'd all assigned positions: Ness, Jeff and Poo on straight offense, Lucas on a sneak attack from behind, Ninten guarding the flag, and Claus on notice to do anything necessary whenever someone needed him.

The plan was to charge forward with Ness and co, then while the other team is distracted, Lucas would snatch the flag. Simple enough.

The first three ran out, Ninten and Claus took positions by the flag, and Lucas went around the bottom of the hill.

Ness, Jeff and Poo made it to the top of the hill in good time, yelling and stomping all the way. Ness was secretly pretty stoked he got to be the distraction. He wasn't too good at being sneaky.

But as they ran down to the other side, they kept their senses open, Poo especially. His eyes darted around the trees and foliage looking for any signs of the other team's strategy. So far, he hadn't spotted so much as an enemy which left a sour feeling in his gut.

They slowed down at the base of the hill, right in front of the enemie's flag. It was standing proud, fully visible, but surrounding it were the three Mondo brothers, hands like claws bared waiting for their next move.

Poo surveyed the area. So if they had three on guard, then where were the other two?

* * *

Lucas wormed his way between trees at the base of the hill. He wanted to be a good team mate, but the trees were really nice there and he ended up strolling through them and enjoying the atmosphere rather than sneaking by.

He bent down to pick a particularly nice clover but was stopped midway by the sound of sniffling and sobs.

He turned a bend around the hill to see the depressed boy from the other team siting against a tall eucalyptus with his head in his knees.

"I'm nothing but a worthless protoplasm..."

Lucas approached him quietly and bent down to his level with a small smile.

"Are you ok?"

The boy jumped and looked at Lucas with red eyes.

"It doesn't matter... I'm worthless."

Lucas felt bad. He couldn't just leave this guy here. He wouldn't want to be alone crying in the woods either.

"That's not true", he said, "everyone has worth."

The other boy sobbed dramatically. "Who am I? I'm useless as a teammate, in life. Oh we're not gonna win why does it even matter?"

Lucas sat down next to him and they talked.

* * *

"Fuck, where is Lucas with the flag? He was supposed to be back by now." Claus yelled, yanking at his hair. It had been too long since he sent them out for this radio silence to be anything but concerning.

Lucas was probably off sniffing flowers. Claus loved his brother but goddamn!

He cried out in frustration and Ninten put a hand on his back.

"He must have a good reason for being late."

Claus scowled. "I sincerely doubt that."

Right then the three offense poked through the tree line and scuttled down the hill to Claus and Ninten.

"Where is Lucas?" Ness asked, "did he get caught? He should be here then."

"We did the distraction but he never showed." Jeff said.

Claus yelled out again, ripping a few pieces of hair from his skull. Of all the things to go wrong.

"Alright new plan. I'm going with you guys this time. Don't get caught, you don't wanna have to run all the way back to our side, you're tired enough as it is." Claus said.

The three of them nodded and Claus and them went back up the hill and out of sight.

Ninten leaned against the fence in front of the flag. His poker face was great but deep down he was nervous. He was nervous that he'd have to leave, and he'd never see Claus again.

He didn't want that. Claus... he meant too much to Ninten, did too much for the boy to just let go.

Claus was sweet and sour, shy eyes with a toothy grin. He made Ninten comfortable. He was the kind of guy who would make you breakfast in bed but put hotsauce in your oatmeal.  
Ninten thought he couldn't find a better friend. Best friend? Soul... bro...

But if they lost he wouldn't see Claus again and he wouldnt be able to properly thank him for caring, for being his friend and being patient with him. Ninten wouldn't be able to put a word to why his chest warms up when Claus laughs and his blood heats up so wonderfully when Claus insults him.  
He would lose that feeling, that simultaneous energy and relaxation that Claus brings with him. The kind that makes Ninten feel so alive.

The teen halted his thoughts with a hand over his beating heart. Not now. He couldn't think about his feelings now.

Not when he was so close to losing him.

"Hey!"

Ninten snapped out of his trance and surveyed the area.

"Hey you!"

He locked in on a figure in the trees. It was the hippie guy from earlier, yelling through his megaphone at the forest line near the top of the hill.

Ninten's eyebrow twitched.  
How annoying.

"Hey! You should just give up! Then we can be done! You're gonna lose anyways! You suck!"

"As if!" Ninten shouted back, finding it difficult to stifle a response. So much for this guy wanting a friendly competition.

"Give up! You're terrible at this! A disgrace to your mother!"

His eyebrow twitched again. "Don't bring my mom into this, dude."

"Why? Is her horribly disfigured face going to come haunt my nightmares?"

Ninten felt his blood start to heat up in the worst way. His mom was a lovely woman and no one was allowed to insult her. Especially not with mediocre fighting words. "I'll kick your ass kid, I'm warning you!"

"I'm so sorry I insulted your gross old mom, I bet she's ashamed to have such a pathetic son!"

In all honesty Ninten knew he was making a bad move, but no one was ever allowed to insult his family. Especially not this little shit stain.

He ran towards the hippie boy, leaving his post unguarded. It was a short burst that his lungs could handle and soon he caught up to his stunned enemy, tagging him and smacking the megaphone out of his hands in the process.

Ninten gave a small, triumphant smirk that fell from his face when he turned back around. The flag was gone and in its wake were only the footsteps and snickers of the Mondo brothers as they ran out of sight around the bottom of the hill.

Ninten couldn't run anymore, his breath was already beginning to thin from just that. His heart raced and he panicked. He couldn't lose. He couldn't let them lose because of his short temper.  
He needed some way to fix this. Help. He needed help. Ninten looked down at the megaphone in his hands and the only idea he had clicked into his mind.

He turned the speaker on and as loud as he could yelled, "They got the flag! Bottom of the hill! Help!"

The megaphone screeched and his voice came through so loud that Ninten thought his eardrums might shatter. At least there was no way they could've missed that.

Of course, for the sake of time, he didn't include the words 'Holy shit I'm so sorry I'm a dumbass with no self control' but he felt them regardless.

If he couldn't count on himself, he needed to count on his friends.

And he was right to. The four boys running to snatch the enemy flag all stopped in their tracks. Ness looked the most concerned and Claus sent them all back to help Ninten retrieve their stolen flag.

It was fine. He could do this on his own.

Claus shuffled quickly and quietly down the bottom of the hill, ending right at the forest line a few yards from the enemy base.  
Convenient, he thought. The forest line was near the top of the hill on their side but here it was only a few steps away.

He pressed himself against the back of a tree and took a deep breath. When he poked his head out, he was completely taken off guard.

The flag was gone. Gone. Not there.  
What was there, though, was the fat kid from earlier leaning against the fence in front of the empty base. Porky.  
Claus raised an eyebrow. He changed clothes? From overalls to an admittedly well tailored black and red pinstripe suit.

And Claus was really really confused.

Really confused.

Clothes aside, the flag was the biggest issue then. Did Lucas have it? No, that was too easy of an assumption. But then where did it-?

Unless.

The answer dawned on Claus at the same time Porky saw him from behind the tree.

"Well well well, look who's in the losers seat now."

Claus stepped out into the open, hands on his hips. 'Where did you hide it?"

Porky shrugged with a shit eating grin.

Claus frowned. "That's against the rules, I'll have you disqualified."

"I don't see any referees around."

He bit his tongue. The head did that on purpose, no doubt.

"Don't you have any integrity?" Claus yelled, more heated with every sentence.

"I bet you can't even spell that word, dummy!"

"You little-" Claus cut himself short when a particularly shiny piece of metal poked itself out of Porky's suit pants.

Claus' face dropped to stone like indifference and he pointed a lazy finger at the silver skewer.

"So the flags in your pants."

Porky looked down in shock and attempted to stuff the flag back in his pants, cool persona shattered in and instant.

"Wha- no, no its not!"

Claus grinned, finally feeling a glimmer of hope in this game. He cracked his knuckles. "If there's no refs here than I'm allowed to break a few... rules too, right?"

* * *

"Claus is there alone? Oh shit." Ninten said. They'd finally managed to get their flag back but the Mondo brothers were holding steady waiting for them to let their guard down again.

Ninten tapped his foot nervously against the dirt. Clearly the other team knew what they were doing, and when it didn't work out, were attuned to cheap tricks.

"Should we send someone over there to help him out?" Ness asked. "I mean, what if they're trying to corner him? He won't be able to come back with the flag."

Ninten chewed his thumbnail and looked around. The Mondo brothers were still there, waiting.  
It was like the duck and wolves puzzle. You could have only an equal amount of wolves to ducks. Any more wolves and the ducks would get eaten.  
So only one person could go.

While the other three were discussing, Ninten made a split second decision and ran up the hill. If no one else would go, then he'd gladly do it himself. This game was for him after all. He needed to be useful too.

* * *

Claus took a few quick steps towards Porky and the large blonde courageously...

took off running.

But before he could make it past the forest line the flag managed to wiggle its way free of his pant leg and onto the ground.  
Good planning, Claus thought. Nothing with better hold than slippery suit pants.

Snarky thoughts aside, Claus leapt for the flag, snagging it and turning towards the hill just in time to miss Porky's sweaty hand aiming at him from behind.

* * *

By the time Ninten reached the halfway point at the top of the hill, he was closer to death than he had ever felt.  
So much for being courageous. Fucking asthma.

He leaned against a tree, hands on his knees, wheezing like a goddamn hospital patient. At least he had the good sense to stop running before he passed out.

But god, did he feel useless.

"Ninten! Fuck are you ok?"

He felt a hand on his back and looked up at the concerned face of his redheaded roommate. He was so busy clinging to life that he didn't even hear him come up.  
Ninten coughed and stood up slightly, "I'm ok, I just ran too much."

"Oh shit dude, fuck, ok, just keep breathing you don't have to run, I got the flag now so-"

"tag"

A lazy slap to his calf had Claus turning in muted horror. Not only did some kid tag him, the same kid was laying on the ground sobbing while doing it.

"You have to give up the flag now... not that it even matters."

Claus reeled before shoving the flag in Ninten's arms and blocking the kid from tagging him.

"Ninten, shit, I'm so sorry, you gotta take it, our flag is fine so you can just walk down for now. I don't think if I return it to the other team I'll be able to get it again."

The megaphone blared from their own team's side "They got the flag! Sorry! It's Jeff's fault!"

A more distant and offended "what?!" followed Ness' outburst.

They both gasped.

"Fuck, hurry, you gotta beat them to it, dude!" Claus panicked.

"I can't run!" Ninten frowned.

"Oh shit yeah, uh!" Claus looked around in a craze, anything, any other options...

"Hey, you gotta give it up... give everything up..."

"Fuck, how did that even happen?! How did they get our flag?!" Claus yelled.

The Mondo brothers shot past the two of them with flag in tow, just out of arms reach and sped down the other side of the hill.

Claus couldn't even scream, he could only stare. They were fast as hell, that's how they got it.

It was spiraling, everything that could possibly go wrong, was going wrong.

Claus did the only thing he could think of in his stupor. He collected the enemy flag from Ninten's arms, took a deep breath, and chucked it as far towards their base as he could.

He'd have to hope for a miracle.

And it came from behind, 2 tons of weight barreling towards their base. It slammed into Ninten and Claus and threw them tumbling down the hill before catching the flag between its serrated jaws.

A bear.

A fucking bear.

Claus and Ninten screamed bloody murder the moment they saw it and narrowly dodged getting crushed by its feet as they rolled down the hill.

The animal flew with some kind of unprecedented determination towards their goal.

"They've almost made it with our flag, hurry!"

Claus turned around and saw Lucas at the top of the hill, yelling at the beast as it charged and waving his hand in encouragement.

Time seemed to slow down, everything half speed and the world spinning. Claus whispered to himself.

"What the fuck is happening"

The bear landed at the bottom of the hill (Ness, Jeff and Poo had already jumped out of the way), and plopped the flag on the ground in front of their base.

It stood there and looked back up at Lucas.

Lucas looked confused for a second before it dawned on him. "It doesn't count if he brings it back it has to be someone on our team!"

How does a bear...? Claus sat and stared but Ninten, with that same admirable lack of foresight that he'd carried the entire game, stood up, and ran towards it.

"No, Ninten you can't run, you'll pass out!" Claus yelled, reaching for his arm in a futile effort before scrambling up and chasing after him.

Claus managed to catch up to Ninten just as the shorter boy reached the flag. Their fingers touched and they grabbed it together, throwing it into the base with reckless abandon.

A gunshot rang out from the top of the hill. The match was over.

Then did that mean... they won?

They must've. There's no way they both got their flags in at the same time.

They... won. Ninten would get to stay.

He wasn't going to leave.

They won.

Claus couldn't believe it. The world didn't feel real. Everything was spinning and he was so frazzled and exhausted from running and getting hit by a bear and he was so hopped up on endorphins and adrenaline and _happiness_ that he didn't even register when he wrapped his arms around Ninten, lifted him up to his level, closed his eyes and kissed him. He only realized it all when Ninten slipped his hands around Claus' shoulders and kissed him back, both of them laughing and smiling together.

And at that moment Claus finally knew what he should call them.

* * *

Hey! wow look at that reasonably timed update. Man I feel good about myself. Anyways, I'd been wanting to write this chapter FOREVER. Not sure if the joke translated but there's something hilarious to me about Lucas letting his whole team down cause he decided to cheer some guy up. The boy is too calm mannered for anyone's good.

As always, I really love your messages and reviews! They really are the things that force me to sit down and write every day, especially the ones that are a lil forceful too, they get the job done.

Final thing, who's going to fanime? Hit me the fuck up


	13. unlucky number

By the time Claus let go, it was silent. Even if it wasn't, Claus was so focused on Ninten that any outside noise would've been blocked out.

The other boy's face held a wry smile, full of satisfaction and mischief. But his thumbs twiddled, and his face was red, betraying his cool appearance.

Claus felt that at this moment, he was seeing Ninten in a new light. One that wasn't quite there before, but just below the threshold. He had no complaints.

Ninten looked up at him and began to say something but was cut off prematurely by a voice from afar.

"what the hell do you think you're doing?!" the booming words of the camp head sliced through their comfortable silence. He stomped down the hill hard enough to create prints in the grass, his face beet red with anger.

Claus turned to him, placing his hands on his hips with a cocky grin. "We're celebrating our win, sorry you lost loser."

"You're both expelled from camp."

... Uh, what?

Ninten was the first to react and gasped, choking on his own spit and broke into a fit of coughs.

Claus patted Ninten's back but didn't turn away from the man in front of him, the words not sinking in. "What? What the hell for? We won fair and square, you can't just-"

"you're not getting kicked out because of the game, you're expelled because you broke a rule. Any homosexual behavior is liable to expulsion!"

"that's, literally, what? That's total bullshit!" Claus yelled.

"it's in the rules that were stated at the beginning of camp."

Did anyone actually listen to those?

Claus placed his hands loosely on Ninten's hips once the other boy had recovered. Power pose.

Ninten saw what he was doing and turned to the head, calm and matter of fact. "it is 2016, buddy. We got laws now. You can't do shit."

"Yeah? This is a private camp and we're allowed to choose who gets to be here. Your parents will be contacted about this. You have till the end of the week." The head walked past them, yanking the back of Claus' collar, effectively separating him and Ninten.

They stood there watching him walk away in stunned anger. There was doubt in what he said but it carried little weight. Everyone was about 99% sure what he says, goes.

They tried to keep Ninten at camp and managed to fuck up so bad that that he and Claus were getting kicked out.

Slowly, Ninten sank to the ground. Claus flopped backwards with his limbs splayed on the ground and they sighed.

Romantic.

Having witnessed the whole thing, the other four were in equal shock and concerned, but completely lost on what to do.

For the first time in a while, Ness looked at Lucas, searching for some kind of answer. Clearly, seeing his cousin kiss his roommate was... Confusing.

Perhaps he had no one else to look to for answers. More likely, he was reminded of his own situation.

Lucas met his gaze before quickly turning away. Of all the fucking times for Ness to come around, this was the worst one.

Jeff was the first one to make a move walking hesitantly towards Claus and Ninten on the grass.

"hey, so-"

"UGH" Claus groaned, slapping his palms against the ground in an appropriate temper tantrum. "UGH!"

Ninten made the next move and went from on his knees to fully on the grass, legs splayed and back on the ground. He pointed at Claus who was groaning and punching the dirt.

"what he said"

Jeff looked back to the group for some support, but Claus sat up before anyone could react.

"this sucks," he said to Ninten, effectively ignoring them, "it's fucking Thursday. We're gone in two days?"

He flopped back down and the two of them whined. Like children.

The other four teens stood there in some kind of limbo, unable to be happy for their friends newfound... feelings, but unable to feel too bad for them either as they squabbled in the dirt. _Like children._

Eventually Lucas managed to coax Claus and Ninten back to their cabin. Everyone figured it was best that, before anything else, they rest and sort things out with each other.

Once they were in the cabin, the weight of what transpired before the bad news set in.

They... Definitely kissed. There was no getting around that.

Ninten spoke first, "so that was. Something." he sat on his bed, one leg crossed and the other bouncing on the floor nervously.

"yeah." Claus agreed.

There was an uncomfortable pause before the two of them spoke up.

"can I just-"

"I'd just like to-"

They stared for a second and this time it was Claus who spoke first.

"I uh, um, uh-"

Before Ninten interrupted.

"I have a big fat crush on you!"

Claus' eyes widened and he stopped babbling. There was a punishing silence before he started laughing, bubbly and loud. "Me too!"

Ninten looked up from where he'd begun twisting his hands in his sheets and joined Claus in his hysterics. They were both nervous, confused, and happy. This was their way of showing it.

Eventually it died down and Claus cleared his throat. He looked away and scratched his neck, but couldn't keep down his grin.

"Can I, uh, kiss you again?"

Ninten nodded almost too quickly, face flushing, and Claus moved slowly to his bed. He pressed a knee on the mattress next to Ninten's hip and placed a hand on the opposite side.

It was a lot different without the adrenaline from the game earlier and both boys could feel their temperatures rise at embarrassing speeds. Slowly Claus placed his free hand on Nintens' cheek and pressed their lips together. It was simple and sweet, it made Claus starry eyed.

They disconnected after a few seconds, Ninten seemed to be just as awestruck. They didn't know what they were doing but, hey first time for everything. And they certainly wouldn't let lack of knowledge stop them.

Claus went in again, this time faster and their teeth clacked, which would've been embarrassing but just made Ninten laugh. The mistake somehow managed to calm them both down and they tried again. This time Ninten placed his hands on Claus' waist and pulled him into the kiss.

The shorter boy decided to take charge and pressed his tongue against Claus' lips. Claus opened them, deepening the kiss and the color of his face. It was so nice, somehow so natural.

Claus wondered why they hadn't done this sooner.

By the time they broke apart, Claus was almost fully seated on Nintens' lap. He rested their foreheads against each other and snorted.

"what's so funny?" Ninten asked.

Claus wrapped his arms around him, burying his face in the other boy's neck. "nothing. I don't know. I'm just happy."

Ninten sighed contently into his hair. "Me too."

Claus tightened his hold, burying his face deeper. "I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave you. You're such a fucking good friend. A whole summer isn't enough time, let alone the pathetic amount of weeks we actually got together."

Ninten pulled Claus away and nodded, expression much less serious "I know!" he rolled his eyes, "I've been crushing on my hot roommate all summer and when I finally get him I have to leave? It's fucking BS."

Claus laughed but stopped halfway. "wait you think I'm hot?"

Ninten looked away, realizing how embarrassing his joke was out loud.

"that's beside the point. The point is... Is that this is a bullshit situation. You know he's probably gonna call our parents and tell them we committed arson rather than kiss just in case they're tolerant or something."

Claus groaned and planted his forehead on Nintens shoulder again. "I know, God, this sucks." he looked up hesitantly, eyebrow raised "but... you said you think I'm hot?"

"wait, " Ninten said, clutching Claus' forearms. "I have an idea." he lifted Claus off of him, grabbing the boy's hand and headed for the door.

Claus slowed down in protest "ok but the hot comment-"

Ninten opened it, tugging Claus along with him. "oh my god. Of course you're hot, that fucking scar across your eye keeps me up at night, now let's go!"

Claus winked at no one in particular. "NICE"

* * *

The first part was the distraction. Of course, that was easy enough considering who was pulling it off.

Just a few yells and some stolen bottles of ketchup were enough to not only get the camp head out of his office, but all the way to the other side of campus and then some.

After Claus' incredibly, almost disturbingly realistic cries for help, the camp head shot out of his cabin. "Blood" (ketchup) was slewn everywhere and was apparently just believable enough in the dark to get the man charging off.

Ninten figured that all in all they'd have about 15 minutes, which was, really, plenty of time.

He twisted the handle to the small cabin, hoping for the best. He grinned when it gave him no resistance. People always forget to lock doors when they're stressed.

He nodded to Claus and the two of them stepped inside, quietly giggling, high on adrenaline and the good old fashioned feeling of mischief.

Thankfully even without each other they were both seasoned troublemakers. They knew what they were doing.

On the inside, Ninten noticed the place was bigger than he'd thought. It had a bed, a desk, a fridge, and a fireplace as well as a separate bathroom and was a few feet wider than the normal cabins, which made no sense considering it was only one person living here, not two. Eh, Ninten shrugged. Perks of being staff.

"you take the bed and I'll take the rest of it" Ninten said.

Claus agreed and they set off to work.

Claus snagged a screwdriver from the desk, getting rid of a few screws and unhinging the bed without making it fall. Ninten started dabbing the fridge handle with super glue that wouldn't dry for... about 20 minutes. Hopefully perfect timing.

Whenever the two passed by each other as they worked, Claus felt his heart skip. He was glad he finally knew what the feeling was.

Eventually he slowed down, placing the screwdriver and jar of peanut butter on the floor.

"hey Ninten?" he scratched his neck and the other boy raised an eyebrow. "I uh... I'm really happy."

"i know this is gonna be hilarious"

"no.. I mean... I'm really happy that I got to know you. That I got to meet you."

Ninten paused spreading butter all over the smooth wooden floors. He looked at Claus, suddenly very melancholy. Thinking about it all was very bittersweet.

"you're a lot sappier than I thought"

Claus was about to retort but Ninten cut him off. "I'm happy about it too."

"I'm.. I'm gonna try my best to keep in contact after this."

God was this the end of a school year?

"I yeah, me too."

There was an itching feeling in the back of both of their minds that this night was probably their last one together. There was just too much distance in their real lives to make it work.

Claus, though, ever in denial of reality walked over to Ninten and kissed his cheek, face flushed and eyes determined.

"I mean it. I really do."

Ninten eventually gave him a goofy grin and allowed himself to believe those words... for tonight.

"Me too."

After rigging the cabin into the most dangerous structure in the tri-county area, the two teens made their escape with minimal minutes to spare.

Claus scoped out a spot a few yards away, completely invisible from the cabin but not vice versa, and the two of them sat down to watch their handiwork.

Claus reached into his bag of supplies and took out two beers he'd snatched from the head's fridge.

"teen drinking, eh?" Ninten bit with a tired smile.

Claus shrugged with a smirk. "what's another rule broken?"

They cheered and took a swig just in time to see the head squabble back into his cabin, visibly annoyed.

Throughout the course of the next 45 minutes, there were noises of shattering, yelling, slipping, the lights flickered at random times, a chunk of the ceiling fell down, and all of the windows got fogged up with green smoke from a combo of 40 stink bombs and 3 cartons of spoiled milk.

Claus and Ninten had probably never laughed harder in their lives.

"I guess working as a team is much more appealing than I'd ever thought." Claus said, finishing his drink and tossing the bottle to the side.

Neither of them were anywhere near drunk, but it did keep them warm as they watched.

"I'm a fan as well," Ninten said.

When the noises stopped and the lights went off for the final time, the two boys decided it was time to head back.

"I have to say, despite the shit we went through today, it was pretty good overall." Claus admitted.

"oh yeah definitely."

As they walked past the cabin they'd so tenderly destroyed, the door swung open to reveal a fuming camp head, covered head to toe in God knows what.

"I knew it was you two! You can't hide from me."

Claud scoffed. "we weren't even trying to hide-"

Ninten lifted his leg up dramatically and grabbed Claus' arm, striking a pose. "oh no you've FOUND US OUT, whatever will we DO. I guess this is our last hurrah, we have no choice but to LEAVE you."

and to piss the head off more, Ninten grabbed Claus' hair and started fake making out with him poorly and loudly.

Claus tried to humor him and get in character but he was too busy laughing his ass off at Ninten to play along.

However, the ploy seemed to work a little too well and the head yelled, "You're both out of here, not by the end of the week. Tomorrow morning!" and he slammed the door.

Ah shit.

Ninten let go of Claus and the both of them stood there.

Ninten grabbed Claus' hand and wrapped their fingers together. Claus gave him a squeeze back and the two walked off back to their place.

When they arrived, they flopped onto Claus' bed together.

"this still sucks, but... I feel sort of satisfied. At least we did something back, right?" Claus said.

"Yeah, he was probably gonna kick us by tomorrow anyways. Keeping us till the end of the week was bullshit."

"God, I hope Lucas is OK without me."

"Yeah... I'm actually glad to be getting away from Ness. I can only handle him for so long." he paused and laid his head on Claus' chest. "it's not worth it though."

"there's so much more I wanna do with you too." Claus sighed.

Ninten tilted his head up and smirked. "haha gay"

Claus scoffed, "Yeah! That's the point! And I would say this is all making us move too fast but we don't even have enough time to move fast! I mean, who just goes from friends to boyfriends this quickly?"

Ninten flushed. "geez, boyfriends, that's so... Wow..." he tugged at his collar and paused. "Why, uh... why can't we?" he gulped.

It was Claus' turn to blush then. "I mean," he scratched his nose, "I don't know... I just sort of assumed. I guess..." he smiled shyly, "I guess we can."

"I guess we are then.." Ninten smiled back. "I can call you my, uh, boyfriend now." he buried his face in Claus' chest and laughed. "fuck that's so gay".

Claus laughed too, "I wonder what Lucas thinks. I mean, he saw us kiss. I bet he knew. I guess jokes on him, I get to be the gay cousin in the family now. Sucker."

There was a pause before Ninten spoke. "I'm really going to miss you."

Claus sighed and ran a hand through Ninten's hair.

"Yeah. Me too."

* * *

Ness knew it. He knew it couldn't be avoided.

He had to come clean.

So when he and Lucas were sitting alone in their cabin he was fully prepared to lay it all out.

"I'm sorry if I made you upset."

Or maybe not. Because it wasn't him that spoke up first.

Lucas looked down at his nervous hands, guilt hot on his face.

Ness was confused, it wasn't anything Lucas did, it was himself, being an idiot and an insensitive jerk. He should definitely not let Lucas apologize for doing nothing wrong.

"it's ok"

But he did. Ness cringed. He was such a coward, but what a way out. Too good and easy to pass up. After all, he did all of this to keep from ruining their friendship.

Even though that had sort of backfired.

But! At least this way it won't backfire again because if he told Lucas the truth it would just make it weirder. Right?

He swallowed hard. The knot in his throat didn't go down so easily.

But Lucas let out a relieved sigh and a small smile.

"thanks."

Ness felt terrible.

* * *

When I laid down on my sleeping bag, my mind was totally blank.

What the hell.

I was relieved but... I was so confused. Nothing got solved.

I honestly expected an explanation. At least I expected us to talk more. Now it was still just as uncomfortable, but with less promise of real resolution.

Part of me wanted to sit up and be like "hey by the way, no worries but what exactly did I do?"

The smarter part of me decided to let it go. I should just be happy Ness is talking to me at all again. Whatever I did must have been really shitty.

That night stayed silent, but I was hopeful things would get better soon. If not, with Claus leaving, what will I do?

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_My brain: u gotta write, u promised, u gotta, it's been so long_

_My hands: video gaem_

_ANYWAYS this fic is sort of nearing it's end finally, sorry I promised more updates, life's been an absolute shit show recently. I'll spare you the details. Thanks for reading!_


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